Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall by Jean-Michel Foray. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780810946217.

Marc Chagall is one of the 20th centurys favorite artists, known and admired for his rich palette, his inventive approach, his accessible subjects, and the deep traditions behind his work. Combining fantasy, spirituality, and nostalgia with a distinctive modern painting style, Chagalls canvases are infused with a joyous, dreamlike simplicity. Even as styles shifted from Cubism to Suprematism to Surrealism, his work remained individual and idiosyncratic-sometimes harming his art world reputation, but never his popular appeal. Marc Chagall is the first full-scale survey of the artists work in almost 20 years. The lush color reproductions include some 60 paintings and 80 works on paper. An introductory essay by Jean-Michel Foray contextualizes the Russian-born artists work, while a heavily illustrated chronology of Chagalls life-put together by his granddaughter and Jakov Bruk-details the many stages of his career. The work is organized into four sections, each with an introduction by Foray, to help make sense of his prodigious oeuvre. The beautifully designed volume accompanies a major retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.