Marc Chagall (1887–1985)

In June of 1959, Chagall received a commission to design the stained-glass windows for the synagogue that would be a part of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem. The synagogue would have twelve large windows, and it was decided they would represent the twelve tribes of Israel.

Chagall devoted two years to making the windows, which were installed permanently (after being exhibited) in the synagogue in February of 1962.

Because Jewish law forbids the representation of the human figure (because it is an image of God), Chagall created a kingdom of stars, elements, and animals, the latter serving as emblems of the tribes.

This book goes through each window, explaining its meaning, citing the relevant Biblical passages each evokes, and showing the drawings that preceded the paintings as well as color plates of the windows themselves.… (more)

140/2020. Very auto-biography. Very honest. Very revolutionary in the artistic sense. Very modernist. Very expressionist. Very Jewish (Hasidic, Chabad). Very Chagall.

This autobiography was written by Marc Chagall while he was in Moscow in 1922 when he was in his mid-thirties. It covers his early years in Vitebsk in Belarus in what was then the Russian Empire, his time as a young artist in St Petersburg and Paris, and his return to revolutionary Russia as a mature artist and teacher. Chagall was a secular Jew but his origins in Russian-Jewish folk culture and his beloved hometown of Vitebsk were important to him. The expressionistic writing style of this autobiography is very reminiscent of his visual artistic style, which is also amply demonstrated through his many illustrations of the text.… (more)