Following a secular tradition of using chimerical metaphor, Marc Chagall uses all techniques, metamorphosis, hybridization, reification of man, to create a singular pictorial bestiary.
This unavoidable theme was chosen by the Musée National Marc Chagall in Nice for the exhibition “Marc Chagall – Monsters, chimeras and hybrid figures” in the form of a journey to discover the fantasy and symbolism that can be found throughout his work.
The exhibition catalogue published on this occasion includes a full-page reproduction of the exhibited works.
The two works “The Lights of the Wedding” and “Around her” are particularly noteworthy.
In addition to a “Petite introduction pour une étude de l’iconographie de l’hybridation” by Maurice Fréchuret, director of the National Museums of the 20th Century in the Alpes-Maritimes, it includes three illuminating essays.
After an essay on the symbolism of hybridization in the work of Chagall by Elisabeth Pacoud-Rème, co-curator of the exhibition, Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, professor of philosophy at the Jean Moulins University in Lyon, discusses the imaginary, the aesthetic and the religious, and Annette Weber, professor of Jewish art at the University of Jewish Studies in Heidelberg, analyses the Chagall bestiary as a vehicle for the painter’s state of mind.
This is an indispensable work for the understanding of Chagall’s art.
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