The Fall of the Angel, oil on canvas. 147,5 x 188,5 cm (58 × 74,2 in), Kunstmuseum Basel, deposit from private collection
Because of his origins, Marc Chagall intensely felt the problems of the Jewish community in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, just as he intuitively experienced the problems that Russia, his native country, was going through with the First World War and the October Revolution.
Exiled in France in 1922, Chagall was disturbed by the serious and real threats looming over the Western world in the early 1930s. Along with Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró, he was one of the few painters who warned and denounced the dangers of those times.
His anguish is expressed, with strength and faith, in the choice of such revealing subjects as the Crucifixion or, in this case, the Fall of the Angel. In this important work, with its somber and foreboding palette, the angel, all dressed in red, swoops down on the village in a great whirlpool. There is a withered sun behind a dark veil, an animal with a violin from whose bow comes the score, a woman protecting her infant son, and a Jew with the tablets of the law: a disturbed world over which Christ on the cross watches.
A Christ who proclaims a message of hope. Complex composition, the tonalities already announce „the great play of color“ of which André Malraux, a good friend of Chagall and one of the few creators – in the literary field in his case – who, like our artist, realized that a great tidal wave of horror was going to flood Europe in the forties.
Written originally in Spanish by: Jean-Louis Prat
PRAT, Jean Louis (ed.) (2012) Chagall. Fundación Colección Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid, pp. 182-183.
Keith Haring was born in 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Using chalk, he began drawing small, vibrant characters and animals as well as various recognizable symbols such as dazibaos in New York
Cultural exchange and cooperation are important parts of the comprehensive Sino-European strategic partnership. They play an irreplaceable role in enhancing mutual understanding between people and promoting the value of our relations. At the 14th Sino-European Summit in 2011, the leaders stressed that cultural exchange is one of the three pillars of Sino-European relations.
Because of his origins, Marc Chagall intensely felt the problems of the Jewish community in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, just as he intuitively experienced the problems that Russia, his native country, was going through with the First World War and the October Revolution.
I did not write to you last month, I had nothing new to tell you and could only have repeated myself, and besides I did not have the courage to do so. Then when the letter carrier came a little later, there was again nothing from Chaudet. Since my health is completely restored, and I therefore no longer have a chance of dying a natural death, I wanted to kill myself.
Auguste Renoir painted two similar versions of Blonde Bather (La baigneuse blonde) in 1881 and 1882, both of which are now published as private collections. The 1882 version is seen above on the left. The model was Aline Charigot, who later became Renoir’s wife. Inspired by Renaissance paintings (especially Raphael’s frescoes) in Italy in 1881, these works are clearly different in style from Renoir’s earlier works. Some commentators have called these works beautiful, while others have called them vulgar.
Barbara Kruger was born in Newark in 1945. In 1965 she began her studies at Syracuse University, Syracuse, which she continued in 1966 at Parsons School of Design in New York. In the sixties and seventies she worked as a graphic designer for the American fashion magazine „Mademoiselle“. In 1980 she received a scholarship at PS1 (Project Studio One), New York. She lives in New York and Los Angeles.