Word: vitebsk
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Icons of Youth. Such magnificence is a far cry from the provincial Russian ghetto town of Vitebsk in which Chagall grew up, the eldest among eight sisters and one brother. To support the family, his father manhandled herring barrels for a livelihood. Life was harsh in Vitebsk, but he remembers his father, who changed his name from Segal to Chagal (Marc added the second l for euphony in French), as a good provider, a "simple heart, poetic and muted." Sheltered by the Jewish commandment against graven images, the young dreamer never saw so much as a drawing until...
...Jewish religion forbids portraying human images in religious art. But Chagall has populated his Bible land with swirling stars, delicate flowers and prancing animals ever since he was a boy singing in the synagogue of Vitebsk. To these personal images, Chagall added clues he found in Moses' instructions in Exodus that a dozen precious gems be engraved with the names of the twelve tribes. Chagall suffused each window with a single brilliant color on which he painted Joseph's description of the tribes of Israel found in Genesis and Deuteronomy, i.e., Naphtali is described as "a hind...
...Manhattan newswoman: "When one is young, one thinks of a goal in art. One talks. One reacts-as I did against cubism. But when one is older, one does what one does. One doesn't talk." Why does he still paint things reminiscent of his native city of Vitebsk, a good half-century after his departure? Replied Chagall, who believes that most artists pick their basic themes early in life: "Cezanne took apples. Monet took trees. I was born where there were no trees or apples-only frozen apples-to take. So I took what there was." Emphasizing...