Marc Chagall and The Bible Exhibition

Works by Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Traveling Exhibition by Sandra Bowden
October 4 — December 14, 2024

Opening Reception

Saturday, October 5, 2024 | 4-6 p.m.
Guest Speaker Taylor Worley presenting Wonders to be Remembered: Reflections on "Marc Chagall and the Bible"
Barrington Center for the Arts

About the Exhibition

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) is perhaps the foremost visual interpreter of the Bible in the twentieth Century. With wit and joy, he has given us the stories that we know so well from the Old Testament. His art is filled with his own reoccurring symbols of visual memory and imagination.

He said he did not see the Bible, but he dreamed it, even as a child. Chagall’s vision of the Old Testament combines his Jewish heritage and modern art giving us a rich display of symbol and imagination. Chagall said, “Since my early youth I have been fascinated by the Bible. It has always seemed to me and it seems to me still that it is the greatest source of poetry of all time.”

Chagall and the Bible includes 44 etchings and lithographs of Chagall’s graphic works and one signed original poster. Ten etchings from his 1960 Bible series brings together the artist’s spirituality and childhood fantasy through the sophisticated artistry of a master printmaker. Another 28 brilliantly colored images from his 1956 and 1960 suites of Bible lithographs are luminous interpretations of some of his favorite stories from the Hebrew Bible. Each is a delightful and colorful interpretation that lets the viewer enter the worlds of the Bible and Marc Chagall.

It is most interesting that Chagall, who is Jewish, would have used the Crucifixion in so many of his works, yet over 100 of his works include the Crucifixion as a reference or the subject of his paintings. Mystical Crucifixion and Christ in the Clock, two colored lithographs in this exhibition, demonstrate his fascination with this theme.

Guest Speaker

About the Speaker

Taylor Worley is visiting associate professor of art history at Wheaton College and directs a research project on art and contemplation. He is an alumnus of the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St. Andrews and author of Memento Mori in Contemporary Art: Theologies of Lament and Hope (2020).

Wonders to be Remembered: Reflections on "Marc Chagall and the Bible"

Despite the upheaval of World War II and his escape from Nazi-occupied Paris, Marc Chagall preserved a richly evocative, even fanciful art practice, establishing himself as one of the leading lights of modern art. In this effort, he understood the artist’s vocation to be in “keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world.” And yet, how could his works respond with such joy and pathos in the face of so much devastation and loss? Time and again, Chagall renewed his sense of wonder by returning to his long-standing fascination with the Bible, which he called “the greatest source of poetry of all time.” Such engagements gave birth to the vividly imaginative portrayals of biblical figures and scenes that make up “Marc Chagall and the Bible.” In response to the exhibition, this lecture will explore how similarly creative and curious engagement with the wonders of God’s Word can perpetually renew the Christian imagination.