Chagall, Paris – New York

The immersive exhibition is devoted to the prolific and unclassifiable painter, Marc Chagall (1887–1985) at the Hall des Lumières during Autumn 2023. This unique digital exhibition presents his entire oeuvre, revealing a work rooted in its times, at the crossroads of the artistic and cultural novelties of his century and in constant renewal.

Paris and New York, the emblematic capitals of modern art, represent two crucial stages in the artist’s long career. Paris was his chosen city, and thanks to the avant-garde movements of the 1910s, it provided the young Russian painter with a pool of experimental work, which he enriched with his own cultural references. New York was primarily a place of exile during the 1940s, and yet it gave the artist’s creativity fresh impetus. After the war, several exhibitions and major commissions reinforced the links between Paris and New York and brought Chagall back to the United States, up until the 1970s.

During this immersive exhibition, all the themes and images present in the artist’s repertoire are projected onto the walls of the Hall des Lumières, like intertwined cut-out images. They are complemented by short extracts of classical music, klezmer, and jazz, which were also part of Chagall’s cultural universe. His fantastic bestiary, his marvellous characters from circuses, fables, and the opera, as well as biblical episodes and references to Russian culture, poetically evoke the artist’s rich life experiences, which naturally resonates with the collective experiences of his people and generation.

As a witness of the greatest historical events of the Twentieth Century —from the darkest to the most uplifting— Chagall turned his bold and imaginative art into an instrument of commitment, peace, and hope.

Listen to the playlist of the exhibition