Marc Chagall Art Center

Vitebsk is a Belarusian city, which is often called small “Paris”, or a city of artists. Such composers as A. Rubinstein and M. Fradkin, artists I. Repin and the author of famous "Black Square" Kazimir Malevich lived here. However, Vitebsk is known overseas thanks to the Belarusian-French artist of Jewish origin – Marc Chagall, whose work is an amazing phenomenon of classical avant-garde. The works of Chagall represent a delicate and touching expression of the artist, the fruit of an extraordinary flight of imagination, images of Jewish folklore and the way to tell about himself, his personality, life, close and dear people.

What the most famous paintings of Marc Chagall do you know? No doubt, these are oil paintings "I and the Village", "Over Vitebsk", "Homage to Apollinaire", "Golgotha", "Paris through the window." As well as a series of “flying” paintings – "Birthday", "The promenade" and, of course, "Over the town." The painting «Over the town" is a fairy-tale dream of two lovers, flying over the small gray town. It is important to note that this painting depicts the Marc Chagall Art Center, located in Vitebsk. The Art Center occupies a small old mansion of red brick with a bas-relief of Mark Chagall.

The Art Center pf Mark Shagall in Vitebsk: unusual center of art in Belarus

The Art Center opened in 1992 and it has more than 300 original works of the famous artist today. There are engravings on wood and metal, a collection of lithographs "12 tribes of Israel", a unique series of 96 illustrations to Nikolay Gogol’s "Dead Souls", commissioned by the French art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Marc Chagall himself offered to illustrate for "Dead Souls” since he was interested in Russian literature, especially the works of Gogol.

In 2002, a library appeared at the art center, where every visitor is able to see and examine books in different languages, rare publications and autobiographical works of Marc Chagall, historical editions about Vitebsk, as well as many catalogs of the works presented at art exhibitions.

Marc Chagall was born on June 7. Festive events take place, the art center represents the best works of the artist, "Chagall" reading is held in the streets of the city this day.

The other memorable places of Vitebsk, connected with the name of Marc Shagall

In addition to the art center, there is a house-museum of the great artist in Vitebsk, Pokrovskaya Street. Marc Chagall was born and spent his youth in this house. There are 5 rooms, telling about the artist's life and Jewish culture in general. At the entrance to the museum, you may buy keepsakes, and you will see a marvelous sculpture "Vitebsk Melody on a French violin” by V. Moguchy. The sculptor portrayed Marc Chagall, sitting on a donkey with "a violin of memories", the Eiffel Tower and churches of Vitebsk can be seen on its strings. It is not the only sculpture of the artist in Vitebsk. A bronze monument created by Alexander Gvozdikov is located on one of the streets in Vitebsk. The artist and his muse Bella, flying over tired Marc Chagall – this is a work of Gvozdikov. The third monument in honor of the famous avant-garde artist is placed in a small settlement called Liozno of Vitebsk region.

To touch Marc Chagall heritage it is possible during excursion

Vitebsk – one of the most ancient cities of Belarus wh ere the set of sights and monuments is located. The city, located on Dvina, is included in routes of excursion tours across Belarus. If you are the admirer of creativity of great Belarus-French avant-gardist Marc Chagall, we recommend to visit the Art centre and the House museum of Marc Shagall as a part of one of our excursions with visiting of Vitebsk. Impressive collections of works of the artist, presented there, leave nobody indifferent!