.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Painted towards the end of Chagall's second return to Russia, Le voyageur is a dynamic painting that shows the influence of the Russian avant-garde paintings, and artist's own optimism and enthusiasm in the wake of the Revolution. The picture is also referred to as 'En avant!' reflecting the bounding energy so evident in the protagonist.
This second title is taken from the slogan 'Onward, onward without a pause', a title for a decoration designed by Chagall for the celebrations of the first anniversary of the Revolution. On that occasion, Chagall found himself overseeing an artistic programme to festoon the city of Vitebsk in decorations, making it a cultural and artistic beacon within revolutionary Russia. Hundreds of banners were created, streets and shops painting, flags flown, arches raised. It was a visual feast that was attacked by some and celebrated by many. Le voyageur is filled with the same zeal. Chagall's enthusiasm for the theme during this period is reflected in his working on the subject several times, not least in another picture now in the Paris Musée d'Art Moderne.
As is reflected by Chagall's role in these celebrations, the Revolution had resulted in a great increase in his stature. For a start, the long-persecuted Jewish population became recognized as full citizens for the first time. In addition, Chagall's fame as a revolutionary artist, garnered in part during his time in Paris and increased during the years of the First World War, meant that many turned to him as a pioneer and purveyor of radical painting. He was even touted to be in charge of painting in a new ministry of culture. Instead, Chagall chose to return to his home in Vitebsk. The central administration appointed him 'Commissar for Art' there, and he swiftly set about establishing an art school and a museum, things that he had sorely lacked during his own youth there. Among the teachers that he gathered around him was his fellow Jewish artist, El Lissitsky, now embarked on his Constructivist career, but who only a few years earlier had shared with Chagall a desire to define himself as an international artist with a very strong Jewish heritage.
Le voyageur testifies to Chagall's position as an arbiter of the avant-garde. The application of the brushstrokes, with the oils seemingly dabbed in some places, also reflects his continuing thirst for innovation, exploring as he was new painting techniques. The areas left in reserve in Le voyageur accentuate the varied surface, providing an internal contrast. At the same time, the avant-garde is clearly present in the geometrical shapes in the background, which lend the work great strength and which also act as a visual counterpoint to the figuration of the man, lending Le voyageur a great sense of rhythm. Here we also see Chagall brilliantly manipulating the new avant-garde language of suprematism espoused by his Vitebsk colleague Kasimir Malevich. The blocks of pure colour are not figurative, yet Chagall has used them to his advantage to create a lyrical musicality and a sense of lift in this picture. In adopting the visual currency of the Suprematists, Le voyageur reveals Chagall as a keen admirer and adherent of the avant-garde. While unwilling to forsake figuration, he nonetheless celebrates the dynamic developments that were taking place in the art of his nation, and of his own academy, as well as celebrating the optimism and dynamism of Revolutionary Russia itself.
This may reflect more than the two artists' mutual influences. Chagall's role as director of the Vitebsk art academy was increasingly undermined from the moment Malevich was appointed. For Chagall, this period resulted in a rich interplay between the artist and his Suprematist colleagues. The energy of Le voyageur also recalls the bounding exuberance of his colleague El Lissitsky's The New
Vitebsk was a melting pot, and Chagall thrived on the many influences and the general atmosphere of hope and change. Despite this, the interplay of the artists and teachers in Vitebsk became increasingly political and personal. Regardless of Chagall's magnanimity, more and more of the teachers appeared to gravitate towards Malevich's understanding of the possibilities, and needs, of revolutionary art, despite no action from Malevich himself. Chagall too took no action, and, in a period when all manners of movement and radicalism were rife and there was no consensus of style, actively encouraged all his teachers to teach what they wanted or, more appropriately, what they believed in.
On one occasion, returning from a visit to Moscow, Chagall found that someone had even changed the inscription of the school, declaring it instead a Suprematist academy. When he left, feeling undermined, the students by contrast petitioned for his return, which they gained. Le voyageur would appear to date from the last period of Chagall's commissariat. With the developments that took place in the school there, the role of the blocks of colour in Le voyageur could be taken as a visual subjugation of the rival style by Chagall, a pictorial embodiment of his own victory.
Works from any period of Chagall's career in Russia are extremely rare, not least due to the nationalization of collections during the later periods of Communism. Of all the Russian periods, though, it is perhaps the work from this period in Vitebsk whose works are the rarest, not least because he managed to paint so much less, what with administrative and educational tasks occupying so much of his time. This also resulted in the small number of surviving works being committed to paper, rather than canvas. Le voyageur thus provides a rare and exciting testimony to the level of his output, during this radical period, a unique example of the interplay of two artistic styles which had found themselves at odds, and which would have such repercussions in Chagall's life.
It is a suitable testimony both to the inclusion of Suprematist elements in Le voyageur and to its sheer quality that this work formed part of the celebrated collection of George Costakis. This collection has earned an important place in history because in it Costakis managed to safeguard much of the avant-garde art of Russia during times when such collections were impossible, and even illegal, to possess. A Russian of Greek descent, Costakis began collecting avant-garde art just after the Second World War, and devoted much of his energy towards this in the decades that followed, often bartering his possessions in order to purchase works. In this way, he assembled one of the most authoritative and complete collections in this field, a field which at that time was ignored and indeed almost taboo. Much art historical knowledge both within and without Russia exists as a legacy of his collection: the majority was donated to Russian museums, while the oft-exhibited remainder became one of the foremost ambassadors in the West for the Russian avant-garde.
This second title is taken from the slogan 'Onward, onward without a pause', a title for a decoration designed by Chagall for the celebrations of the first anniversary of the Revolution. On that occasion, Chagall found himself overseeing an artistic programme to festoon the city of Vitebsk in decorations, making it a cultural and artistic beacon within revolutionary Russia. Hundreds of banners were created, streets and shops painting, flags flown, arches raised. It was a visual feast that was attacked by some and celebrated by many. Le voyageur is filled with the same zeal. Chagall's enthusiasm for the theme during this period is reflected in his working on the subject several times, not least in another picture now in the Paris Musée d'Art Moderne.
As is reflected by Chagall's role in these celebrations, the Revolution had resulted in a great increase in his stature. For a start, the long-persecuted Jewish population became recognized as full citizens for the first time. In addition, Chagall's fame as a revolutionary artist, garnered in part during his time in Paris and increased during the years of the First World War, meant that many turned to him as a pioneer and purveyor of radical painting. He was even touted to be in charge of painting in a new ministry of culture. Instead, Chagall chose to return to his home in Vitebsk. The central administration appointed him 'Commissar for Art' there, and he swiftly set about establishing an art school and a museum, things that he had sorely lacked during his own youth there. Among the teachers that he gathered around him was his fellow Jewish artist, El Lissitsky, now embarked on his Constructivist career, but who only a few years earlier had shared with Chagall a desire to define himself as an international artist with a very strong Jewish heritage.
Le voyageur testifies to Chagall's position as an arbiter of the avant-garde. The application of the brushstrokes, with the oils seemingly dabbed in some places, also reflects his continuing thirst for innovation, exploring as he was new painting techniques. The areas left in reserve in Le voyageur accentuate the varied surface, providing an internal contrast. At the same time, the avant-garde is clearly present in the geometrical shapes in the background, which lend the work great strength and which also act as a visual counterpoint to the figuration of the man, lending Le voyageur a great sense of rhythm. Here we also see Chagall brilliantly manipulating the new avant-garde language of suprematism espoused by his Vitebsk colleague Kasimir Malevich. The blocks of pure colour are not figurative, yet Chagall has used them to his advantage to create a lyrical musicality and a sense of lift in this picture. In adopting the visual currency of the Suprematists, Le voyageur reveals Chagall as a keen admirer and adherent of the avant-garde. While unwilling to forsake figuration, he nonetheless celebrates the dynamic developments that were taking place in the art of his nation, and of his own academy, as well as celebrating the optimism and dynamism of Revolutionary Russia itself.
This may reflect more than the two artists' mutual influences. Chagall's role as director of the Vitebsk art academy was increasingly undermined from the moment Malevich was appointed. For Chagall, this period resulted in a rich interplay between the artist and his Suprematist colleagues. The energy of Le voyageur also recalls the bounding exuberance of his colleague El Lissitsky's The New
Vitebsk was a melting pot, and Chagall thrived on the many influences and the general atmosphere of hope and change. Despite this, the interplay of the artists and teachers in Vitebsk became increasingly political and personal. Regardless of Chagall's magnanimity, more and more of the teachers appeared to gravitate towards Malevich's understanding of the possibilities, and needs, of revolutionary art, despite no action from Malevich himself. Chagall too took no action, and, in a period when all manners of movement and radicalism were rife and there was no consensus of style, actively encouraged all his teachers to teach what they wanted or, more appropriately, what they believed in.
On one occasion, returning from a visit to Moscow, Chagall found that someone had even changed the inscription of the school, declaring it instead a Suprematist academy. When he left, feeling undermined, the students by contrast petitioned for his return, which they gained. Le voyageur would appear to date from the last period of Chagall's commissariat. With the developments that took place in the school there, the role of the blocks of colour in Le voyageur could be taken as a visual subjugation of the rival style by Chagall, a pictorial embodiment of his own victory.
Works from any period of Chagall's career in Russia are extremely rare, not least due to the nationalization of collections during the later periods of Communism. Of all the Russian periods, though, it is perhaps the work from this period in Vitebsk whose works are the rarest, not least because he managed to paint so much less, what with administrative and educational tasks occupying so much of his time. This also resulted in the small number of surviving works being committed to paper, rather than canvas. Le voyageur thus provides a rare and exciting testimony to the level of his output, during this radical period, a unique example of the interplay of two artistic styles which had found themselves at odds, and which would have such repercussions in Chagall's life.
It is a suitable testimony both to the inclusion of Suprematist elements in Le voyageur and to its sheer quality that this work formed part of the celebrated collection of George Costakis. This collection has earned an important place in history because in it Costakis managed to safeguard much of the avant-garde art of Russia during times when such collections were impossible, and even illegal, to possess. A Russian of Greek descent, Costakis began collecting avant-garde art just after the Second World War, and devoted much of his energy towards this in the decades that followed, often bartering his possessions in order to purchase works. In this way, he assembled one of the most authoritative and complete collections in this field, a field which at that time was ignored and indeed almost taboo. Much art historical knowledge both within and without Russia exists as a legacy of his collection: the majority was donated to Russian museums, while the oft-exhibited remainder became one of the foremost ambassadors in the West for the Russian avant-garde.