ETO: askew view Chagall

Its been a while since I saw some Chagall works live in colour – having missed the recent exhibition of exiles in Paris (Chagall, Picasso, Mondrian) at the Stedelijke, in which they displayed a number of rarities from their collection – which is extensive and has some well-known favorites such as the Fiddler from 1912... All the more enjoyable then, the discovery of an 'underground' (literally) exhibition of Chagall at the Olaf Gulbranson museum in Tegernsee at the edge of the Bavarian Alps... A jewel of an exhibition based on a very pristine copy of the Lithographic suite 'Daphnis & Chloé' from 1961... His first major composite work in a medium which he would use extensively to ensure that everyone had access to his work, not only museums and the rich.

general view with nevers seen work

Already a treat to see the suite in it's entirety rather than just parts of it, this is but the beginning... Curator Michael Beck used his connections as partner in Beck & Eggeling (Düsseldorf) to convince a number of private owners to lend their Chagall's to the exhibition... which creates a added dimension which is in itself special, since many of these works have not been seen publicly for a long time or at all... A small but select group of intimate treasures, interspersing the lithographic series at intervals and connected to various periods and techniques, making the show a small but vigorous journey into the eventful life of the artist. In addition to theses 'discoveries' there is a small but extremely interesting note/sketchbook on display covering the period of his sojourn in Paris, flight and arrival in the United States, with the excruciating facets of the war, persecution of Jews, destruction of his hometown Vitebsk and the disaster of the refugee-ship 'Struma' as pictorial references to a series culminating in various crucifixions and the theodisic question 'How can God allow such horror?' The elaborate catalog features an article by Roland Doschka concerning this section.

Another section elaborated upon is the 'German' period of Chagall's life by Mario-Andreas von Lüttichau in which the strange and extreme metamorphosis from darling of Herwarth Walden's 'Sturm' and associates to the bane of the Nazi's who included Chagall's works in the infamous 'Entartete Kunst' exhibition – sketching the strange and incredible change of fortune in just a couple of decades with exact references and poignant moments (the sale of unwanted work for foreign currency in Switzerland). This is preceded by a more general view of Chagall's life by Bernhard Maaz, The Lithographic section is introduced by Andrea Knop, and as if this were not enough, the show and catalogue are accompanied by an extensive program of readings and presentations by specialists in their field as far afield as the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to put it all into context.

So, much more than just being able to enjoy Chagall's work in a small and intimate setting, it is an outside chance to view some very special works completely unknown but still familiar, including one wood-relief-collage one would expect Schwitters to make... but then he also turned to flowers in a later period... so too Chagall remains fresh and vibrant, familiar and surprising all at once in the small major exhibition... Well worth a trip if one is heading for the Alps... still until January 2022...