The Yudel Pen Gallery will be recreated in Vitebsk

July 7, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The gallery of Marc Chagall's teacher, Yudel Pen, will be recreated in Vitebsk. This was announced today at the opening of a one-painting exhibition - "Portrait of Marc Chagall" by Yudel Pen from the funds of the National Art Museum, timed to the 125th anniversary of Marc Chagall's birth, by Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee Vladimir Terentyev, BELTA correspondent reports. For the future gallery, the authorities intend to transfer the building of the former Jewish school, an architectural monument on Kalinin Street. In addition, another building nearby, also of architectural and historical value, will be transferred to the Marc Chagall Museum to house an art center. In an interview with BELTA correspondent, Vladimir Terentyev noted that the Art Museum, a branch of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, holds 183 oil and graphic works by the artist. Over the past 20 years, restoration work has been carried out, which has made it possible to fully appreciate Yudel Pen's mastery not only as a teacher but also as an original master. However, the general public can see only four dozen canvases in the permanent exhibition, as the exhibition space does not allow for the entire collection to be displayed. In this regard, the Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Kosinets, gave instructions to create a gallery. The location for the gallery was not chosen by chance. Nearby is the building where the Vitebsk People's Art School, founded by Marc Chagall and Kazimir Malevich, was located. Yudel Pen headed one of the workshops there. Soon, restoration will begin in the building, and then a museum of the famous educational institution will be created here. The Marc Chagall Art Center will also move to this block, and thus the city will receive an entire museum complex dedicated to the founders of the modern avant-garde. Yudel Pen was born in present-day Lithuania in 1854. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. From 1891 he lived in Vitebsk, where he founded a school-workshop. The artist's favorite genre was the compositional portrait. In 1939-1941, Pen's art gallery existed in Vitebsk, which contained about 800 works. During the occupation, some works were lost, and some were evacuated. After the war, some of the works returned to Vitebsk, and some became part of the funds of the National Art Museum of Belarus. -0-