In 1922, the artist emigrated from Russia, and from 1937 he became a citizen of France.
The State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin will present a solo exhibition "Marc Chagall. The Joy of Earthly Attraction." This was reported by Interfax, citing the museum's press service.
This format of the exhibition will be the first in 40 years. The core of the exhibition will consist of works from domestic museum and private collections from the "Russian period" (the late 1900s - 1922), which is one of the most intense and important periods in the artist's work.
"Next to works filled with everyday details, there will be more metaphorical, generalized compositions created at the turn of the 1920s. During this period, unexpected paintings featuring images of lovers and symbolic embodiments of feelings appear in Chagall's work," the statement said.
The centerpiece of the exhibition will be a reconstruction of the auditorium of the Jewish Chamber Theater, for which the artist painted nine panels in 1920. Here, visitors will also be able to view a letter from Chagall to the theater's management requesting the opportunity to show his work not only to the audience attending performances but to everyone interested.
The exhibition will also feature works from the so-called Vitebsk series. There, visitors will see works such as "Above the City" and "Walk," where recognizable images of Vitebsk streets intertwine with fairy-tale motifs.
From the collection of the Pushkin Museum, illustrations by Chagall for Nikolai Gogol's poem "Dead Souls," created between 1923 and 1926, when the artist left Russia, will be presented.
The exhibition will also include works that have never been exhibited before or have not left museum storages for decades. In particular, a cycle of drawings dedicated to World War I will be presented for the first time in such volume. Additionally, visitors will see Chagall's illustrations for the book of fairy tales by Der Nister, as well as the book itself, which was published only once - in 1917 - in Yiddish.
"The project offers a new way to discover the art of Marc Chagall, who continued to return to his homeland in his work even in exile," the museum noted. The exhibition will be open to visitors in the White Hall of the main building of the museum from December 11, 2025, to March 15, 2026.
Marc Zakharovich (Moisei Hatzkelievich) Chagall (July 6 or July 7, 1887, Liozno, Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire - March 28, 1985, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Provence, France) was a Russian and French artist of Jewish descent. He studied under Yudel Pen, then under Nikolai Roerich and Lev Bakst in St. Petersburg, and from 1911 to 1913 in Paris, where he lived in "The Hive."
After the revolution, he taught, founded the Vitebsk City Museum and the Vitebsk Art School. In 1922, he emigrated from the RSFSR, and from 1937 he became a citizen of France. In addition to painting and graphics, he worked in scenography, monumental and decorative applied arts. He was the author of the ceiling of the Paris Opera (1964) and a panel for the Metropolitan Opera (1966). He also wrote poetry in Yiddish and authored the memoirs "My Life." He is one of the most famous representatives of the artistic avant-garde of the 20th century. Chagall's work prominently features motifs related to his childhood and youth in Vitebsk and traditional Jewish themes. His muse throughout his life was his wife Bella Chagall (1895–1944).
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