Beautiful Love Stories written by “poet of the color”
Chagall’s works from thirty collections from all around the world
Comparing to the first Chagall retrospective of 2004, this second retrospective, Chagall; Magician of Color, shows
more various and extensive works of Chagall. 160 works on view were traveled from thirty worldwide public art
museums and private collections, such as the rich repository of Chagall’s art, Musée National Marc Chagall (Nice),
Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate (London), Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid), Musée Royaux des
Beaux Arts de Belgique (Brussels), Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow),
The State Russian Museum (Saint Petersburg), Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY), etc.
Chagall’s masterpieces on view
This Chagall retrospective will be remembered as a monumental exhibition where various Chagall’s masterpieces
are gathered in one place. We cannot single out Chagall’s works in Russian Period (1910-22), known as the zenith
of Chagall’s artistic career. The most high-priced works of his entire creation, Over the Town (1914-18, The
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) and Promenade (1917-18, The State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg), are
masterpieces in this Russian Period having offered Chagall the world-wide fame. These works deal with Russian
folkloric subjects and dreams of love and ideal in Chagall’s unique style influenced by Cubism and Fauvism.
Also, Over Vitebsk (1915-20, Museum of Modern Art, New York), Blue House (1920, Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art
Contemporain de la Ville de Liège, Belgium), The Poet Reclining (1915, Tate, London), The Cock (1928, Museo
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) and Peasant Life (1925, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY) are one of Chagall’s
best known works.
Especially, entire seven series of Chagall’s monumental Decoration of Jewish Theatre (1920, The State Tretyakov
Gallery, Moscow) are shown, through which public can feel the grandeur of scale and philosophy of Chagall art.
Entire series of Chagall’s masterwork,
Decoration of Jewish Theatre (1920) shown for the first time in Korea
The eye-catching masterpiece in this exhibition is Decoration of Jewish Theatre , produced in 1920, Chagall’s
Russian Period, for the interior decoration of the Jewish Chamber Theater in Moscow. This work is composed of
Introduction to the Jewish Theatre , Wedding Table , Love on the Stage , Literature , Theatre , Music and Dance .
These works, having been left alone more than fifty years after the theater was closed because of Stalin’s seizure
of power, were restored by a Swiss foundation in 1987 and recovered to their original forms, and are now in The
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Especially, Introduction to the Jewish Theatre and Wedding Table , supersized
works about 8 meters in width, first on view in Asia, are shown in a dramatic exhibition setting of the entire works,
including four panels having already visited to Seoul in 2004. Decoration of Jewish Theatre , showing Chagall’s
artistic and philosophical inspiration, is the best work in this exhibition.
I and the Village , faces of fairy-tale world seen by Chagall
This exhibition is organized to emphasize Chagall’s style—the combination of dreamy, fairy-tale description and
splendid color. The most publicly well-known works are the masterpieces produced in Russian Period, I and the
Village (1912), painted in gouache; Over the Town (1914-18), a painting on beautiful lovers flying in the sky; and
Promenade (1917-18), a painting on fairy-tale love story. These works, shipped from museums in Brussels, Moscow
and Saint Petersburg, are the best works and the zenith of Chagall’s art.
Insurance Estimated Value Reaching up to One Trillion-Won
The price of Chagall’s works has been drastically increased in the art market. The artist’s works on view are mostly
in public art museum collections, the price of which is incalculable. The insurance estimated value of 20 works
among the entire works is more than 600 billion won. The insurance estimated value of the seven entire works of
Decoration of Jewish Theatre is 280 billion won, and that of Over the City and Promenade is 50 billion won each,
which is the highest-priced estimate on individual piece.

“There is only one color in our life that gives a meaning to the life and the art, the color of love.”Marc Chagall

2. Scale and Organization of the Exhibition
Supersized exhibition of 160 Chagall’s works from 30 worldwide collections
Chagall’s second retrospective in succession of 2004 Exhibition presents more in-depth subjects and more colorful
works among his masterpieces. This retrospective is a supersized exhibition of 160 works of Chagall from 30
worldwide public art museums and private collections such as: Musée National Marc Chagall (Nice, a rich repository
of Chagall’s art); The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, a rich repository of Chagall’s Russian Period works,
especially Decoration of Jewish Theatre and Over the Town ); Museum of Modern Art (New York); Tate (London);
Musée Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique (Brussels); and Chagall Committee (Chagall’s descendant and the large
collection of Chagall’s masterpieces). This monumental retrospective, overwhelming 2004 Chagall Exhibition in its
quality and contents, shows Chagall’s various works from the early to the late years coming from all over the world,
in a thematic and chronological order.
Thematic organization to easily understand Chargall’s art
• 1 I and the Village, Russian Period 1910-1922
In Russia Period, an adolescent Chagall painted his indigenous life and dreamy
ideal. Masterpieces from this period are I and the Village , Over the Town ,
and Promenade . Also, a familiar work, Chagall’s Over Vitebsk through wellknown
Chun-su Kim’s poem, “Snow falling on the Chagall’s Village,” is also
shown in this section.
• 2 The Bible by Chagall
A Jewish artist, Chagall’s masterworks on biblical story containing the message
of world peace though the salvation of life, are separately presented in this
section.
• 3 Love and Lovers
Works describing dream and happiness through lovers, the main theme of
Chagall’s art world, are presented.
• 4 Decoration of Jewish Theatre
The entire seven works of Decoration of Jewish Theatre , produced in 1920 for
the interior decoration of the Jewish Chamber Theater in Moscow, are shown for
the first time in Asia. This monumental series will give the viewer the sublime of
works Chagall’s.
• 5 The Circus
This section shows Chagall’s works depicting comical clowns in colorful
costumes and acrobats of traveling circus.
• 6 Works on Paper
Among Chagall’s works on paper, produced though his entire life, the most
colorful works are selected to show Chagall’s unique color sensibility. Illustrated
prints based on classics, such as Four Tales from Arabian Nights , Daphnis and Chloe,
and Fables of La Fontaine , are on view.

Chagall’s Art World painted by Love
The most distinguished artist in the 20th century, Marc Chagall, was a Jewish French
born in Vitebsk, Russia. During his long 98 year-life, he tried nearly every medium: oil
paintings, prints, wall paintings, stained glass, stage sets, and murals and ceiling paintings
in the huge structures, such as Opera Houses and museums. Above all, Chagall was a
transformative artist. He developed his unique, romantic style in combining his childhood
experience when living in the Jewish village and his imagination and in accepting strong
colors from Fauvism and a new idea of space from Cubism.
Like most avant-garde artists, Chagall was able to transform the genre, color and form in
changing and overlapping various art genres. Chagall’s art, so childlike and mysterious
that is not categorized in any other contemporary art genres, deeply influenced on the birth
of Surrealism.
Like he said in his autobiography that “I didn’t have one single painting that didn’t
breathe with the sprit and reflection [of Vitebsk],” the everyday-life motif of flower,
animal, the folklore of countryside village, bride and lovers appear in free forms in his
canvases. Also, Chagall, who frequently paints fairy-tale-like world, country life and
lovers flying in the sky, left us beautiful works like dreams, such asI and the Village (1912),
Over the Town (1914-18) and Promenade (1917-18). The pieces of his memories and
imagination acquired through his long life were incised in the domain of vision—in his
canvas—surpassing the domain of time.
Chagall’s works show his pursuit of passion and love through his entire life and his
unique color in a dreamy world.