Interesting Art Stories: 67. I and the Village, Marc Chagall, ACJ Art Academy

 

How are you?

Currently, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 67th story is “I and the Village” by Marc Chagall.

Portrait of Chagall, Yehuda (Yuri) Pen

“I and the Village” is an oil on canvas painting by the Belarusian-French artist Marc Chagall in 1911. Titled by the poet Blaise Cendrars, a close friend of Chagall, the painting was inspired in part by the developing Cubism at the time. As the title suggests, this painting is a "narrative self-portrait" featuring memories of Chagall's childhood in the town of Vitebsk, Russia, and it shows Chagall’s distinct vocabulary of abstraction.

Marc Chagall's childhood home, Vitebsk, Belarus

This painting can be divided into several sections. The upper right shows Chagall's hometown, which includes a church, a series of houses, a black-clothed man holding a scythe and a female violinist in front of the man, and further emphasizes the dreamlike feel of the painting with the woman and some houses in the village upside down. Below that, there is a green-faced man, with a hat and a necklace with a cross, that some say Chagall. At the bottom, there is a hand holding a glowing tree. The object next to it is an object that some say a child's bouncing ball, which appears to be a toy Chagall played with as a child. Finally, there is a milkmaid milking a goat on the top the head of a lamb, a motif common to Chagall. 

Chagall Art Centre, Vitebsk, Belarus

It is noteworthy that this painting is a reflection of Chagall's dreams and memories, and its significance is that it combines various elements of Eastern European folktales, both Belarusian and Yiddish.

This painting is one of Chagall's earliest surviving works, and in the painting, he focused on color, form and shape instead of ignoring the laws of gravity and perspective.

Painted a year after Chagall moved to Paris from Russia, this painting is currently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Sculpture of Marc Chagall outside Chagall House, Vitebsk,
Belarus

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The Stories about Music Films: 54. Geliebte Clara (2008)

 

Basic Info

Title: Geliebte Clara

Genre: Biography, Drama, Music

Country: Germany, France, Hungary

Language: German

Running time: 107 minutes

Release date: 4 December 2008 (Germany), 13 May 2009 (France)

Staff

Director: Helma Sanders-Brahms

Producer: Alfred Huermer

Screenplay by: Helma Sanders-Brahms

Music: Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann

Cinematography: Jürgen Jürges

Edited by: Isabelle Devinck

Cast

Martina Gedeck as Clara Schumann

Pascal Greggory as Robert Schumann

Malik Zidi as Johannes Brahms

Summary

"Geliebte Clara" is a 2008 Franco-German-Hungarian film directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms and the last film she directed before her death in 2014. The film tells the story about the pianist Clara Schumann and her marriage with the composer Robert Schumann.

Clara Schumann

Plot

After performing Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor in Hamburg, where the Schumanns get to know the young composer Johannes Brahms, Clara and Robert Schumann live in a new home in Düsseldorf, where Schumann begins his new job as musical director. 

Clara and Robert Schumann

The demands for his new composition, the Rhenish Symphony, creates tension between him and Clara. Shortly thereafter, Brahms introduces some of his works to the Schumanns, and they are impressed by his compositional and pianistic skills. Allowed to stay with them, 

Johannes Brahms

Brahms takes care of their children. Shortly after the successful premiere of the Rhenish Symphony, Schumann gets to know Dr. Richartz who will help him with his health problems. Schumann considers the talented Brahms as his successor, but Brahms leaves Schumann's house when he realizes that he has feelings more than just friendship for Clara... (Continue)

Movie Review

“Really Hearing the Music”

“Music draws you into the story”

“Lifetime love story”

“Really good”

“Must see”

Interesting stories about the film

1. Helma Sanders-Brahms, who was a director and writer of the film, is a great-great-grandniece of depicted composer Johannes Brahms in the film.

Helma Sanders-Brahms

2. Nikolai Kinski, the actor playing young Robert Schumann, is the half- brother of Nastassja Kinski, who played Clara Schumann in the film “Frühlingssinfonie (1983).” However, the opening scene of young Robert and young Clara was cut for theatrical release.

Frühlingssinfonie (1983)

From this week, I would like to introduce my film writer page to below links, which I established on the film site “FilmFreeway,” to submit a video to a film festival in Germany, to which I was invited at the beginning of this year.

Thank you.

Movie Trailer

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Amedeo Modigliani in Worldwide Museums: 3. Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

 

How are you?

The 3rd place I would like to introduce for this week is the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris in Paris, France.

Located between the Champs-Elysées and the Eiffel Tower, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris is a symbol of 1930s architecture and one of the representative establishments of the Parisian cultural field. The museum has more than 15,000 works of art from the 20th century to the present, including monumental murals by Raoul Dufy, Gaston Suisse, and Henri Matisse.

Located in the eastern wing of the Palais de Tokyo and constructed for the International Exhibition of Arts and Technology of 1937, the museum was inaugurated in 1961. Then, after a period of renovation, it reopened on February 2, 2006, with an exhibition dedicated to Pierre Bonnard.

The Palais de Tokyo

It is also one of 14 City of Paris' Museums, which since January 1, 2013, have been incorporated in the public institution Paris Musées.

Among the museum collection, the modern collection focuses on the artistic movements that have developed in Paris since Fauvism in 1905, while the contemporary collection from the 1960s is more open to the European artistic scene such as Nouveau Réalisme. More recently, the collection has spread the artists from all over the world, including the United States, China, Africa, etc.

The works of Modigliani currently in the possession of the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris are as follows.

Portrait of Frank Burty Haviland, Amedeo
Modigliani (c. 1914)

Cariatide, Amedeo Modigliani (c. 1913-
1914)

Woman with a Fan, Amedeo Modigliani
(1919)

Woman with blue eyes, Amedeo Modigliani
(c.1918)

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