Blog #6: Single Work Analysis
Single Work Analysis:
Marc Chagall’s Creation
Right on U of T’s campus, tucked away in Wycliffe College, lay a beautiful collection of Marc Chagall artworks. With fifty-five pieces, my eyes were drawn in all different directions to choose which stood out to me the most. They went chronologically, from bright and colourful lithographs to his later darker etchings.
One work that stood out to me at the beginning of the collection was Creation made in 1960. There was something light-hearted, playful, and harmonious about a work seemingly depicting the creation of life on Earth. When I originally looked at it, I was sure it was a watercolour painting with black ink on top, but I learned it was a lithograph. With a gradient blue background emitting from a circular white shape in the top middle, surrounding it gradually becoming a darker blue. At first, I felt like it was a dusk or twilight time of day, but as I looked longer instead, I saw it as the sun is emitting this light which eventually will brighten the whole page instead of it being night. This, being the only colour in the work, created a very calm and serene feel to the piece. Many of Chagall's other works were colourful with many different and clashing bright colours, while this one felt much slower, only using the shades of blue.
Where the paper is coloured the lightest shade, a simple sun is drawn upon it, which all the other figures surround. The figures are drawn in a seemingly playful manner, where only simple black lines outline the recognizable shapes and no intense detailing is added. Sitting atop the sun are two angels; the one on the left has its hands in a gesture around the sun, and the angel on the right is blowing an instrument that looks like a Jewish shofar. The bodies of the angels are not drawn realistically, the hands and feet are blobs and there is no anatomical soundness to the shapes of their bodies. This style of drawing makes the images feel ephemeral and of the moment with quick line sketches and imperfections. There is no illusion of space or three-dimensional elements, yet there is a dynamism to the piece given by the loose line work and lack of rigidity. Continuing to flow down the page is a variety of animals. Sheeps, birds and fish coexist in the same spacial realm. Each animal is in a pair; since the sheep shows one has horns and the other doesn't, it references a male and female. There is no ground where the animals stand, the sheep float with the birds who are seen with the fish. This elimination of boundaries between species adds to a sense of harmony and connectedness.
Scattered around the animals are three trees. Trees are often a symbol of life and are a recurring shape in Chagall’s other works. They are full in blossom, showing a sense of growth and fullness. Trees alluding to the ideas of birth and new beginnings add to the process of creation we are witnessing in the piece. At the very bottom of the page, we see two human nude figures, one interacting with a tree. A woman on the left sits back as the male figure on the right’s head is turned towards her, but hands grab what looks like an apple from the tree. This immediately drew the connection to the story of Adam and Eve. Showing the end to the peace and bliss by humans already breaking their one rule–don’t eat the apples from that tree.
One work that stood out to me at the beginning of the collection was Creation made in 1960. There was something light-hearted, playful, and harmonious about a work seemingly depicting the creation of life on Earth. When I originally looked at it, I was sure it was a watercolour painting with black ink on top, but I learned it was a lithograph. With a gradient blue background emitting from a circular white shape in the top middle, surrounding it gradually becoming a darker blue. At first, I felt like it was a dusk or twilight time of day, but as I looked longer instead, I saw it as the sun is emitting this light which eventually will brighten the whole page instead of it being night. This, being the only colour in the work, created a very calm and serene feel to the piece. Many of Chagall's other works were colourful with many different and clashing bright colours, while this one felt much slower, only using the shades of blue.
Where the paper is coloured the lightest shade, a simple sun is drawn upon it, which all the other figures surround. The figures are drawn in a seemingly playful manner, where only simple black lines outline the recognizable shapes and no intense detailing is added. Sitting atop the sun are two angels; the one on the left has its hands in a gesture around the sun, and the angel on the right is blowing an instrument that looks like a Jewish shofar. The bodies of the angels are not drawn realistically, the hands and feet are blobs and there is no anatomical soundness to the shapes of their bodies. This style of drawing makes the images feel ephemeral and of the moment with quick line sketches and imperfections. There is no illusion of space or three-dimensional elements, yet there is a dynamism to the piece given by the loose line work and lack of rigidity. Continuing to flow down the page is a variety of animals. Sheeps, birds and fish coexist in the same spacial realm. Each animal is in a pair; since the sheep shows one has horns and the other doesn't, it references a male and female. There is no ground where the animals stand, the sheep float with the birds who are seen with the fish. This elimination of boundaries between species adds to a sense of harmony and connectedness.
Scattered around the animals are three trees. Trees are often a symbol of life and are a recurring shape in Chagall’s other works. They are full in blossom, showing a sense of growth and fullness. Trees alluding to the ideas of birth and new beginnings add to the process of creation we are witnessing in the piece. At the very bottom of the page, we see two human nude figures, one interacting with a tree. A woman on the left sits back as the male figure on the right’s head is turned towards her, but hands grab what looks like an apple from the tree. This immediately drew the connection to the story of Adam and Eve. Showing the end to the peace and bliss by humans already breaking their one rule–don’t eat the apples from that tree.
This shows an eerie contrast to the happiness of the rest of the image.Overall, there is a rhythmic quality to the lithograph Creation as various figures suspend around the light source; they seemingly oscillate in this celebratory and joyful piece that leaves the narrative open with humans already causing mischief at the bottom of the page. This work references the Hebrew Bible, drawing certain assumptions and references in my mind, but can also stand alone, showing beauty in nature and the symbiosis of creatures on the Earth.
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