Chagall

One of a series of monographs introducing the work of 20th-century artists, this text is devoted to Marc Chagall. Chagall developed a romantic and personal naive style based on themes from Eastern European Jewish life and Russian and Jewish folklore. He was strongly influenced by the brilliant colours of Fauvism and by the new sense of space of Cubism. Chagall eventually established himself as an important force in modern art by the sheer power and fertility of his imagination, and his immense creative output. Much of his work is related to literature, including his many illustrations for the Bible, the fables of La Fontaine, and Gogol's "Dead Souls". In 1945 he designed the sets for Stravinsky's ballet "The Firebird". His other works include two vast murals for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and stained-glass windows representing the Tribes of Israel at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem.