Poems on a fence, museum fund replenishment, and a street show. Vitebsk celebrated Chagall's 130th anniversary
Marc Chagall expressed his love for his native Vitebsk in paintings and poems. He admitted: "My distant city aches within me...", he painted its white churches and synagogues, its crooked streets, which are known to many people in different parts of the world, who have never been to Belarus, and who wish to see it someday.
Marc Chagall, a great mystifier in painting, decided to use the magic of numbers in his date of birth – to have three sevens: 07.07.1887. In reality, he was born on July 6, but celebrated on the 7th, and this day entered all encyclopedias.
For the master's anniversary, teachers and students of the city art schools painted a multi-meter fence on Pokrovskaya Street, where Marc Chagall's house-museum is located. The gray concrete barriers became a kind of canvas for poetic lines that the artist dedicated to his homeland: "Long ago, my beloved city, I haven't seen you, I haven't leaned against your fences. … I haven't lived with you, but there wasn't a single painting of mine that didn't reflect your joy and sorrow…".
Another gift for the Master's birthday was made by the Belarusian customs. They handed over to the Marc Chagall Museum a portrait of the artist, detained at the border, painted by the German graphic artist Hermann Struck, under whom our countryman studied the techniques of etching and lithography in Berlin.
As explained by museum director Irina Voronova, Shtruk painted portraits of all his students. He depicted Chagall in 1922, when the artist was 35 years old. This work was acquired at an auction by a Belarusian collector who intended to donate it to Vitebsk. However, customs regulations for its transport across the border were violated, and after legal proceedings, the etching ended up in the museum.
This is not the only portrait of our countryman. The Vitebsk collections hold a series of works by the German artist Ernst Günther Hansing. He created them based on sketches made in the Café de la Place in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a place Marc Chagall frequented. Hansing captured the artist at a time when, according to his habit, he would make sketches on napkins, which were then taken by waiters as valuable souvenirs.
Authentic paintings by the master can be seen at the exhibition in the Marc Chagall Art Center as part of the exhibition "130 Years – 130 Masterpieces," which includes works by the artist from the Vitebsk museum's collection. Some of these works are currently on display in Minsk at the National Art Museum.
The program of festive events on the artist's birthday opened at the House of Cinema with a screening of the documentary film "Marc Chagall. Unreal Reality," and the Art Museum hosted a presentation of a photo-documentary exhibition. The Kolas Theater presented the play "Chagall… Chagall…," which has won several awards at prestigious international festivals.
The epicenter of the celebration was Pokrovskaya Street, at the beginning of which stands a monument to the artist. Grateful Vitebsk residents laid Chagall's favorite cornflowers at its pedestal. The festive procession to the house-museum was led by the birthday boy himself, whose role for many years has been played on the Kolas stage by actor Gennady Gayduk. Bella (actress of the "Lyalka" theater Olga Makhan'kova) also rode in a carriage next to him. For a while, the street turned into the artist's living paintings: street musicians played, acrobats and mimes performed, and artists drew.
The traditional festival "Visiting Mark and Bella" took place in the museum courtyard. A concert of klezmer (street Jewish) music performed by the "Shalom" ensemble from Lida was held here. By the way, this ensemble participated in the filming of Alexander Mitta's film "Chagall - Malevich". And late in the evening, artists from the Belarusian "Lyalka" Theater showed the play "Chagall. Exodus".
This year, the Cultural and Historical Complex "Golden Ring of the City of Vitebsk "Dvina"" was also involved in the festive program. The synthesis theater, led by Larisa Danchenko, performed a production. Amateur artists presented the atmosphere of the city at the beginning of the 20th century, and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations staged a colorful show with violinists playing on the roof and lovers soaring in the sky. There was also a reenactment of a fire, which, as Chagall described in his autobiographical book, happened on his birthday.
In one of the halls of the Center for Contemporary Art "Art Space "Tolstogo, 7"", Vitebsk painters and graphic artists, who continue the traditions of the school glorified by our famous countryman, opened an exhibition dedicated to the master's anniversary, "Vitebsk. Place. Artist".
Tatyana Pasternak. Photos by Anton STEPANISHCHEV. "Vitebskiye Vesti".