Chagall

by Werner Haftmann and Werner Haftman

Book Overview

Offers a critical analysis of Chagall's paintings, graphics, mosaics, stained glass windows, and other works, with commentary on his themes, artistic development, and influence.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810907941
• ISBN13: 9780810907942
• Release Date: April 1984
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 2.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 9.3" x 12.3"
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Blue Muse

Painting illustrates inner and outer worlds in the colored dreams, experiences, memories and unconscious of MARC CHAGALL. I like the painter's mix of the fantastic with the real and use of colors, especially blue and green. Something that impresses me every time about his work is how a history of art is all there: Bonnard-type isolated color and light, with Redon-type dreaminess in "Bella in Mourillon"; Byzantine iconographic-type hand of God in the blessing ray across the angel of destiny in "The big circle"; Cezanne-type modulating in "Fruits and flowers"; Corot-, Monet- and Renoir-type hazily gleamed, richly varied colors in "Peasant life"; Cubist patchwork in "Dedicated to my fiance"; Fauves-type explosive coloring, with Gauguin-type awkwardly drawn figures and crudely contoured objects and with Jawlensky- or Kandinsky-type mystic Russian folklore in "Still life with lamp"; El Greco- and Tintoretto-type color build-up in "King David"; Matisse-type decorative outlining and flat colors in "Little parlor"; Neo-Imressionist-type moving color in "Homage to Apollinaire"; Orphist-type loudly bright colors in "The drunkard"; Picasso-type fear, mercy and protest over Guernica in "The falling angel"; Rembrandt-type solidly formal built-up face from shadowy darks to glowing lights in "Anch'io sono pittore" self-portrait; and later Titian-type green-gold in the radiating "Midsummer night's dream" light. It is always difficult for me to pick favorites from the artist's output, but I am always drawn to his "Message of Odysseus" wall mosaic: it is so unbeatably clever and effective to surround the sleeping hero with episodes from his life, or from his dreams, on shimmeringly colored stone and glass cubes. Author Werner Haftmann backs a helpfully well-written text with perfect illustrations: I like both his book and Jacob Baal-Teshuva's MARC CHAGALL.