Marc Chagall (Vitebsk 1887 - 1985 St. Paul De Vence)

After studying in St. Petersburg with Léon Bakst, who introduced him to the painting of Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh, he went to Paris, coming into contact with the intellectual avant-garde and approaching Cubism, interpreted according to a personal fantasy key. In 1914, he returned to Russia, joined the October Revolution and, in 1918, was appointed commissar of fine arts in Vitebsk, where he founded an academy. He then returned to Paris where the symbolic theme of the crucifixion pervaded his painting and gave rise to works such as White Crucifixion of 1938. In the 1940s he also experimented with ceramics and sculpture and conceived large monumental works, integrated into the architectural space, such as the decoration of the New York Opera House in 1964 or the stained glass windows for Metz Cathedral, completed in 1968. In 1970, the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris dedicated a retrospective of his etching work to him. Chagall is famous for his paintings depicting dreamlike and imaginative scenarios with vivid coloured hues and simple lines, pervaded by a feeling of joy and serenity.

In 2007, Guastalla Centro Arte dedicated the exhibition Marc Chagall the prophet of the imaginary to the artist, displaying 79 original lithographs and engravings and an important painting by this extraordinary 20th century master