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marc chagall，self portrait with easel，1918
As a master of modernist art, Chagall's works have touched many people with warmth, innocence and imagination. "Above the Town" and "Birthday" let people witness his beautiful love; "Me and the Country" and "Farm" showed his yearning for pastoral life; "Circus" and "Paris Outside the Window" showed his concern for modern society. The chagall known to people is the Chagall who loves life and celebrates love in Paris.
However, before moving to Paris in 1923, Chagall lived in Russia and wanted to open up his own artistic career in Russia. The exhibition "Chagall, lissitzky, malevich: the russian avant-garde in vitebsk, 1918-1922" at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, "Chagall, lissitzky, malevich: the russian avant-garde in vitebsk, 1918-1922, March 28-16), It revolves around the art school that Chagall founded in his hometown of Vitebsk.
background
Before 1918, Chagall lived in Petrograd. He witnessed first-hand the victory of the Bolshevik Revolution and the earth-shaking changes that took place in Russia. The new law stipulates that all people are equal regardless of religion, regardless of ethnicity – and Chagall, who is Jewish, officially became a Russian citizen at this time.
marc chagall，the wedding, 1918
In the context of various social experiments, Chagall's creative passion was mobilized, and many of his important early works were created during this period. Later, he had the idea of starting an art school in his hometown.
marc chagall，composition with circles and goat, 1920
The school, which does not charge tuition, is open to students of all ages, and will build an affiliated art museum in the future — initiatives to serve the people that dovetail well with Bolshevik values, and the government quickly agreed to his plan. Chagall was not only named The Chief Of Fine Arts of the Vitebsk region, but was also invited to organize the celebration of the anniversary of the October Revolution. The school was officially established on 28 January 1919 with chagall, Lisitsky and Malevich as the souls.
marc chagall, cubist landscape, 1919
Soul figures
Chagall
Chagall wrote a painting called Over Vitebsk (1915-1920). On the left side of the painting is the Cubist blue-roofed church, and on the right is the white expanse of the earth in the supremeist style. A Packed Jewish passerby floated in the sky, and the gray silhouette hinted at his mood for the journey. Chagall's work in the modernist style added elements of imagination and folklore, as well as certain racial identities and a sense of belonging.
marc chagall，over vitebsk，1915-1920
Over the town (1914-1918) feels quite different. Although they are all flying in the air, a couple is much lighter than a passerby, and the Cubist approach to modeling makes them look like paper people. They can overlook the densely populated, colourful towns – as if any house can be their home as soon as they land.
marc chagall， over the town, 1914-1918
Lisitzki
El lissitzky (1890-1941) was a Russian artist, designer, photographer and architect. In May 1919 he accepted Chagall's invitation to the art school in Vitebsk. Here, he taught graphic design, printmaking and architecture, which played a key role in the direction of the school. He also often creates political propaganda posters.
el lissitzky, beat the whites with the red wedge，1920
Beat the whites with the red wedge (1920) is a masterpiece of Lisitzki's propaganda paintings at this stage. At that time, Russia was engaged in a civil war, mainly between "red" and "white" (red represented communists, socialists and revolutionaries, and white represented monarchy advocates, conservatives, liberals and others opposed to the Bolshevik revolution). The red wedges in the painting penetrate into the white circle, which clearly expresses the artist's political tendencies.
the lissitzky, proun p23, no. 6 , 1919
Malevich
Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) was personally invited by Lisitsky on a business trip to Moscow. During this period, he created supremacy of the spirit (1919): against a white background, a cross-shaped black shape covered with a square whiter than the background. Lisitzki called the painting a "square crucified" ("square crucified". He believed that supremacy was the highest spirit in existence. He said: "The Old Testament was followed by the New Testament, followed by communism, and finally supremacism. ”
kazimir malevich，supremacy of the spirit，1919
During his teaching, Malevich gradually gave up painting and devoted more energy to theoretical writing and education. And because his suprematist forms and theories were so innovative, his classes were always overcrowded. The suprematist abstract style soon became the dominant style of the school, and the school was even called the "supremeist school".
kazimir malevich，suprematism. sketch for curtain for the meeting of the committee to combat unemployment, 1920
In this environment, an art group called "unovis" emerged in the school, which means "advocates of new art". Members of the group designed posters, magazines, logos, and ration cards in a supremeist style, which appeared on trams, building walls, and lecterns in major Russian cities. They also hold joint exhibitions in major Russian cities, and branches spread throughout the country.
Member of malevich and unovis groups
The fate of the school
While Malevich's classroom was overcrowded, Chagall's classroom was gradually empty. He could not control the direction of the entire school, and the students lacked enthusiasm for his figurative art. In 1920, Chagall left school and went to Moscow. Chagall was critical of Malevich, believing that he had made some small moves behind his back.
guerman fedorov，still life with samovar，1917
Although Malevich and Unovis gained some influence throughout the country, the school did not last long. In 1921-1922, with the end of the Russian Civil War, the political climate changed greatly. The Soviet government decided to impose greater ideological control, including the end of the art movements that could not directly serve the Bolshevik Party. Regrettably, the school's first students, enrolled in 1918, became the only class of graduates in 1922, and the school was transformed into a technical college.
lazar khidekel，suprematist composition with blue square, 1921
The fates of school teachers and students are also different. Malevich came to Moscow with some of his students to continue his quest for supremacist art, and he died of illness in 1935; Lisitsky died in a campaign to besiege Leningrad; the student Ermolaeva was shot dead in a labor camp in Kazakhstan; and the student Khidekel became a successful architect. Most lamentable was Yuri Pen, the teacher who taught realistic painting at school at the time, Chagall and Lisitsky's teacher. He lived there until he was 83 years old. In 1937, after 10 years of wandering in Paris, Chagall wrote him a sentimental letter. It was during Stalin's rule, and any international exchange was strictly prohibited. The day after Payne received the letter, he was murdered in his bed.
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