Marc Chagall
Biography

Marc Chagall was a French-Russian artist who created dreamlike, poetic, and fluid paintings at the forefront of the surrealism movement. 

He quoted saying “when I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it—a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand as a final test,” he said. “If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there’s a clash between the two, it’s bad art.” He had a deeply personal visual language that shows through in his works.

Born in to a Hasidic Jewish family, the artist was grew up surrounded by Jewish culture and iconography.

Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Albertina in Vienna, among others.

Born: 1887
Died: 1985
Education: Studied under Yehuda Pen and worked alongside Robert Delaunay and Fernand Léger

Exhibitions

Select Exhibitions

2022
Marc Chagall: A tale of two worlds
MUDEC – MUSEO DELLE CULTURE MILAN | ITALY
Marc Chagall: Bible Stories, EAMES FINE ART LONDON | UK

2021
Chagall: The Emissary of Light, CENTRE POMPIDOU METZ METZ | FRANCE
Chagall: Color & Magic, CAFA ART MUSEUM CHAOYANG | BEIJING | CHINA

2019
Chagall: My Life
ALTMANS GALLERY, TEL AVIV TEL AVIV | ISRAEL
Chagall: The Lovers, ALTMANS GALLERY, MOSCOW MOSCOW | RUSSIA
Chagall, Matisse, Rouault: A General Collection, THE MENARD ART MUSEUM KADENA | JAPAN
Chagall: From black and white to colour, CAUMONT CENTRE D’ART AIX-EN-PROVENCE | FRANCE

2018
Chagall: Stories into Dreams, POLK MUSEUM OF ART LAKELAND | FLORIDA | USA
Chagall, OPERA GALLERY, NEW YORK UPPER EAST SIDE | NEW YORK | USA
Chagall: The Lovers, ALTMANS GALLERY, MOSCOW MOSCOW | RUSSIA
Chagall: Bible, EAMES FINE ART LONDON | UK
Chagall. The Breakthrough Years, 1911–1919, GUGGENHEIM BILBAO BILBAO | SPAIN
Marc Chagall: Light and Colour in Southern France, MACAO MUSEUM OF ART MACAO | MACAO
Marc Chagall: The Modernity of Decorativeness, MUSEUM BERGGRUEN MITTE | BERLIN | GERMANY
Chagall: Etchings & Lithographs, JOHN DAVIES GALLERY MORETON-IN-MARSH | UK
Chagall: The Breakthrough Years, 1911–1919, KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL, GEGENWART BASEL | SWITZERLAND

2017
Chagall: Fantasies for the Stage, LACMA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART PARK LA BREA | LOS ANGELES | CALIFORNIA | USA
Chagall: A Symphony of Colours, GILDEN’S ART GALLERY LONDON | UK
Chagall: Colour and Music, THE MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS MONTREAL | QUEBEC | CANADA
Chagall: C´Est La Vie…, BECK & EGGELING DUSSELDORF DÜSSELDORF | GERMANY

2016
Chagall: Fables, ALON ZAKAIM FINE ART (DOVER ST.) MAYFAIR | LONDON | UK
Chagall: Daphnis & Chloé, WINNIPEG ART GALLERY WINNIPEG | MANITOBA | CANADA
Chagall Homecoming, THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO LOOP | CHICAGO | ILLINOIS | USA
Chagall: The Bible, DAVIDSON GALLERIES SEATTLE | WASHINGTON | USA
Chagall: The Green Violinst, EL PASO MUSEUM OF ART EL PASO | TEXAS | USA

2015
Chagall’s Magic Flute: Highlights from the Metropolitan Opera, FENIMORE ART MUSEUM COOPERSTOWN | NEW YORK | USA
Chagall: Biblical Narratives in Print, HAGGERTY MUSEUM OF ART, MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY MILWAUKEE | WISCONSIN | USA
Chagall Exhibition, JOHN DAVIES GALLERY MORETON-IN-MARSH | UK
Chagall: Daphnis & Chloé, BECK & EGGELING DUSSELDORF DÜSSELDORF | GERMANY
Chagall’s Daphnis & Chloé, NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA
Chagall: Love and Life, CHIOSTRO DEL BRAMANTE ROME | ITALY
CHAGALL, ROYAL MUSEUMS OF FINE ARTS OF BELGIUM BRUSSELS | BELGIUM
Chagall: Enchanted Dreams, OPERA GALLERY, SINGAPORE

2014
Marc Chagall: Jerusalem Window Lithographs, THE DAYTON ART INSTITUTE DAYTON | OHIO | USA
Chagall : Daphnis & Chloé – Art Gallery of Alberta, ART GALLERY OF ALBERTA EDMONTON | ALBERTA | CANADA
Chagall: Love, War, and Exile – The Jewish Museum New York
Marc Chagall Lithographies, THE MENARD ART MUSEUM KADENA | JAPAN

2013
Chagall: entre guerre et paix, Musee National du Luxembourg, Paris
Chagall: Between War and Peace, MUSÉE DU LUXEMBOURG 6E | PARIS | FRANCE

2012
Marc Chagall, Nassau County Museum of Art, NY

2008
Marc Chagall, MAN – Museo d’Arte di Nuoro, Nuoro

2007
Marc Chagall: The Bible Series, Louisiana Art & Science Museum, Baton Rouge, LA

2006
Marc Chagall, Tale Art Museum, Lillestrom

1985
Marc Chagall: Retrospectives; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Royal Academy, London

1983
Oeuvres sur papier exhibition: National Museum of Modern Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

1982
Marc Chagall: Retrospectives; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Louisianer Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark

1977–1978
The artist’s work from 1967 to 1977; Musée du Louvre, Paris

1974
Retrospective of engraved works (prints); National Gallery, East Berlin and Dresden

1970
Hommage a Marc Chagall; Musee du Grand-Palais, Paris

1967
Retrospectives; Zurich, Cologne and the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence

1963
Retrospective; National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

1959
Retrospective; Museum of Decorative Arts, Palais du Louvre, Paris

1951
Retrospective; Jerusalem

1947
Retrospective; Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris

1946
Retrospective; Museum of Modern Art, New York

1942
Artists in Exile; New York

1938
Retrospective; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

1933
Retrospective; Kunsthalle Basel, Basel

1926
Solo Exhibition; Reinhardt Gallery, New York

1924
Retrospective; Galerie Barbazanges-Hodebert, Paris

1913
Solo Exhibition; Der Sturm Gallery, Berlin

1912
Participated in the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d’Automne; Paris, France