Marc Chagall: The Bible Series
January 22 – March 21

(MILWAUKEE, WI) The Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University will present Marc Chagall: The Bible Series January 22 – March 21, 2004. The exhibition will open with a lecture at the Haggerty Museum Thursday, January 22 at 6 p.m. A reception will follow at 7 p.m. in the Museum.

The exhibition will consist of the Museum's entire collection of 105 hand-colored etchings illustrating the Bible bequeathed to the Haggerty Museum in 1980 by Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty. The Bible prints show Chagall's fluid forms, dreamlike sense of space and unique style. In his choice of subject matter, Chagall reveals his reading of the Old Testament in its moments of triumph, sorrow, and prophecy. The exhibition will also display the Chagall tapestry, "The Prophet Jeremiah," on loan from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. The tapestry was commissioned by Evan Helfaer and is one of ten Chagall tapestries in the world.

Chagall was commissioned to do the series in 1930 by Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Chagall spent three months in Palestine where he made the gouaches which served as models for the works. He completed 66 of the plates by 1939 during Hitler's rise to power, returning to the project 13 years later after the Holocaust. He completed the series in 1956. Chagall demonstrates his preoccupation with human interaction with God in his depiction of passages from the Old Testament.

"Chagall's Bible Series represents the artist's reflections on major human themes from the Old Testament and their implications for modern times," said Curtis L. Carter, director of the Haggerty Museum of Art.

Chagall's Bible images often focus on the complex relationship between God and man. Men are called by God to perform great acts, but remain very human, capable of weakness, doubt, deception, lust, and treachery. Jacob, father of the twelve tribes of Israel, deceives his father, Isaac, in order to receive a blessing in place of his brother. Joseph is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. David lusts after Bathsheba, subsequently sending an innocent man to his death.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is widely regarded as one of the great artists of the twentieth century. He created a body of work which includes paintings, prints, theater sets and costumes, murals, and stained-glass windows. Chagall was born in the small Russian town of Vitebsk. He studied art in St. Petersburg and in Paris. After the Russian Revolution, he became head of the Vitebsk art school and later theatrical designer for the Jewish State Theater in Moscow. Chagall traveled widely and lived in Germany, France, and the United States. He became a French citizen in 1937 and settled permanently in France in 1948.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Marquette University Women's Council Endowment Fund, the Edward D. Simmons Religious Commitment Fund, Marquette University (Awaiting Confirmation) and the Wisconsin Arts Board.