MARC CHAGALL. THE JOY OF GRAVITY

For the first time in four decades, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts has presented within its walls a monographic exhibition, "Marc Chagall. The Joy of Gravity."

The exposition is based primarily on works from the "Russian period" (late 1900s — 1922) — one of the most intense and important periods in the artist's career. The years spent in his homeland largely determined the further development of the artist's utterly unique style.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a reconstruction of the auditorium of the Jewish Chamber Theater, for which Chagall painted nine panels in 1920. Also displayed here is the artist's letter to the theater's management, asking that his work be made visible not only to audiences of performances but to anyone who wished to see it.

Visitors to the museum will see works from the "Vitebsk series," in which Marc Chagall, with immense love and attention, captured those closest to him and views of his native city and its surroundings. The exposition also includes works that have never before been exhibited or that have not left museum storerooms for decades. Among them are illustrations for the tales of Der Nister and Nikolai Gogol's poem "Dead Souls." For the first time, a cycle of drawings dedicated to World War I is presented on such a scale.

The exhibition comprises 87 paintings from the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, the National Gallery of Armenia, and others.

Olga Galaktionova, Director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
Curator: Evgenia Petrova, Chief Expert of the Russian Museum for Scholarly and Publishing Activities
Architectural Design:
Planet9, Agniya Sterligova, Evgeny Zimin
Photo: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts