Marc Chagall Museum Explained

The Marc Chagall Museum (Belarusian: Віцебскі музей Марка Шагала) is a museum dedicated to the painter Marc Chagall, in his hometown of Vitebsk, Belarus. The museum was founded by the Vitebsk City Executive Committee's decision on October 23, 1991.

The total area is 294m2; it has five exposition and four exhibition halls. The museum is housed in two buildings, the Marc Chagall Art Center and the Marc Chagall House-Museum.

Marc Chagall Art Center

The Marc Chagall Art Center, at 2 Putna Street, was opened in 1992. Exhibitions of graphic works by Chagall from the museum's collection are held here: woodcuts, etchings, aquatints, a series of illustrations of Nikolai Gogol's novel "Dead Souls" (1923-1925), a series of color lithographs from 1956 and 1960 on the theme of the Bible, a cycle of colour lithographs entitled The 12 tribes of Israel (1960) and other of his works. The museum also houses a collection of printed graphics by European avant-garde artists such as Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger. The Art Center has a scientific library dedicated to the works of Chagall and other avant-garde artists, which has more than 3500 volumes.

Marc Chagall House-Museum

The Marc Chagall House-Museum, at 11 Pokrovskaya Street, was opened in 1997 and is located in the house built by the artist's father in the early 1900s. Here Chagall spent his youth; he wrote about this period in the autobiographical book My Life. The household items of the townspeople of the 19th and 20th centuries are shown as well as copies of archival documents and works relating to his years of life and his family's life in Vitebsk.

As of 2021, the nearby synagogue where Chagall and his family were congregants, the Great Lubavitch Synagogue, is open to investors interested in restoring the dilapidated building.[1]

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Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2021-02-02. Belarus: Vitebsk authorities want to sell — or give away — the synagogue where Marc Chagall prayed. Investors will get tax breaks and other incentives to restore it or conserve the ruins. 2021-02-18. Jewish Heritage Europe. en-US.