Marc Chagall: Love and Luminosity

Alon Zakaim Fine Art is hosting an exciting exhibition next month revolving around one of the finest collections of privately owned Marc Chagall works in the United Kingdom. ‘Marc Chagall: Love and Luminosity’, through its 32 works spanning from 1938 to 1984, is a retrospective that showcases the deep connection between Chagall’s use of luminous colour and his most recognisable motifs. The show also investigates the effects that love had on Chagall’s artworks, be it the love for his first wife Bella Rosenfeld, his second wife ‘Vava’ Brodsky, or the deep affection that he carried for his home city of Vitebsk and his adoptive home in Paris.

Owner and Director of the gallery, Alon Zakaim, explained: “All of the Chagall works on display in our exhibition pivot around love, light and colour, but these are not separate entities in his art. Colour for Chagall conveyed movement and emotion, forming the perfect medium through which love could be expressed.”

From a young age, Chagall’s broad and ambitious mind was at work, dreaming of his future potential career paths as a violinist, cantor, dancer, and poet. These envisioned occupations would later materialise in his art and motifs, which similarly found influence in his childhood in Vitebsk. In addition to these formative years, his love for his first bride, Bella, also served as a catalyst for his visual language. Bella appeared in his seminal 1917 work Bella with White Collar, and after her death in 1944, Chagall placed importance on preserving her memory through his paintings. She appears as a recurring motif in many of his works, particularly through the ‘lovers’ motif, exemplified in Chagall’s c.1984 work Amoureux à l’arc en ciel (on display in the exhibition).

Chagall specialised in riotous displays of colour, creating a spectacular body of work that compelled Picasso to comment “when Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour is.” To the artist, colour could convey movement, rhythms, and emotions - a punctuation that instils dynamism into his bouquet works. Chagall’s second wife Vava also proved to be a driving force in his art, appearing as a muse in many portraits, including the artist’s 1966 work, Esquisse pour ‘Portrait de Vava’. Here, Vava embodied Chagall’s life in France and she also played a central role in the ‘lovers’ motif in other works.

The importance of love and luminosity within Chagall’s oeuvre is one that is best explained by the artist himself: “In our lives, as in the artist's palette, there is only one colour that can give the meaning of life and art – the colour of love.” “As you move through ‘Marc Chagall: Love and Luminosity’”, said Ben Springett (gallery Director), “our aspiration is for visitors to truly discover, in this selling exhibition, the profound significance that love and luminosity held within Chagall’s iconic imagery.”

The exhibition has been extended and will be shwing until 22 March 2024 at Alon Zakaim Fine Art, located in the heart of Mayfair at 27 Cork Street, London, W1S 3NG. The exhibition is open to the public from 09:00-18:00 on weekdays.