Chagall retrospective to return, bigger & brighter
By Ines Min
“When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is,” Picasso once famously said. Art aficionados will have another chance to dive into the world of the French artist in his second major retrospective here, hosted by The Korea Times and sister paper Hankook Ilbo.
“Chagall: Magician of Color” will be open from Dec. 3 to March 27, 2011, at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA). Some 160 works were contributed from more than 30 major museums from around the world for a comprehensive look into the 20th-century painter who is well known as a pioneer of modernism.
The full seven-piece series comprising his decorations in Moscow’s Jewish Theatre will make its Asia debut in the exhibition, while others from his Russian period, including “Peasant Life,” will be on display for the first time in decades outside the owning galleries.
Overseeing the retrospective is director Seo Soun-joo, art critic and organizer of Hankook Ilbo’s annual large-scale exhibitions, who brought to life the original Chagall exhibition in 2004.
“The first exhibition was missing a lot of the major works that most of the public would be able to recognize,” Seo told the press at a conference at the Westin Chosun Hotel, central Seoul, Wednesday. He said he wished to return to the subject in order to provide a full experience of the Jewish painter.
While some of Chagall’s earlier work would’ve been difficult to acquire, SeMA’s growing reputation and the expansion of the Korean art scene has contributed to the diversity and scope of the Seoul showcase, the director said.
“Peasant Life” from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., is being featured for the first time outside the country in more than 50 years. Other pieces Seo felt must be included had loans rescheduled to match the Korean exhibition, he said, and major collaborators include the Musee National Marc Chagall in Nice, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, the Tate and the MOMA (which lent its 1911 “I and the Village,” one of Chagall’s most recognized works).
As renowned as these masterpieces are, however, accessibility to the public remains one of Seo’s key goals, and the exhibition follows a visitor-friendly, simplified chronological progression. While many focus on his periods as dictated by geographical location — his time in Russia, Paris, the United States and France — “Magician” takes shape around his major works and emotional stages: I and the Village; The Bible; Love and Lovers; Decoration of Jewish Theatre; The Circus; and Works on Paper.
The categories, echoing those back in 2004, call to attention the similarities of the shows, but its diversified content brings justice to the “Magician of Color,” and only 10 of the featured 160 artworks overlap with the previous exhibition.
The Jewish Theatre series — only a portion of which were shown before — was created as a mural for the Russian venue. The works were left untouched for decades following the theater’s closure after Stalin came to power, but were restored by a Swiss foundation in 1987, and are now held at the State Tretyakov Gallery in the Russian capital. The series is best known for its inclusion of each of Chagall’s stylistic elements and has been often compared with Picasso’s “Guernica.” The works are valued at 280 billion won ($246 million).
“I and the Village” portray the artist’s dreamy color palettes and whimsical side, while “Over the Town” and “Promenade” are also representative of his fairy-tale world.
General admission is 12,000 won, with group discounts available. Visit www.chagallseoul.com (still under construction).