Film by Eric Minh Swenson. Music by Gardner Chamber Orchestra Marc Chagall Commemorating the artist¹s 125th birthday July 7 - August 6, 2012 "Smiling among the trees, talking to a tethered goat, watching the doves and looking at the flowers which find their place in the studio as well as the garden, Chagall is a magician who conjures colour on canvas, dazzles his audience with glowing stage-sets and draws pilgrims to gaze at his stained glass. "Furthermore, he reaches into the homes of countless art lovers through his generosity with the lithographic press. Yet, lurking behind this tranquil picture is a restless spirit whose world of the imagination strikes deep into the fears and hopes of all - his lovers and flowers may delight and calm, but his visions of war, of suffering and of heroes of times past provoke a response at a deeper level." - Excerpt from Susan Compton, Chagall. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1985. Marc Chagall was born July 7, 1887, in Vitsyebsk, Russia and was educated in art in Saint Petersburg and, from 1910, in Paris, where he remained until 1914. Between 1915 and 1917 Marc Chagall lived in Saint Petersburg. After the Russian Revolution Marc Chagall was director of the Art Academy in Vitsyebsk from 1918 to 1919 and was art director of the Moscow Jewish State Theater from 1919 to 1922. Chagall painted several murals in the theater lobby and executed the settings for numerous productions. Thereafter he returned to Paris. During World War II, Chagall fled to the United States. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, gave him a retrospective in 1946. Marc Chagall settled permanently in France in 1948. Marc Chagall is distinguished for his surrealistic inventiveness. He is recognized as one of the most significant painters and graphic artists of the 20th century. Marc Chagall's personal and unique imagery is often suffused with exquisite poetic inspiration. His distinctive use of color and form is derived partly from Russian expressionism and was influenced decisively by French cubism. Crystallizing his style early, Marc Chagall later developed subtle variations. His numerous works represent characteristically vivid recollections of Russian-Jewish village scenes, as in I and the Village (1911, Museum of Modern Art, New York City), and incidents in his private life, as in the print series Mein Leben (German for "My Life,"1922), in addition to treatments of Jewish subjects, of which The Praying Jew (1914, Art Institute of Chicago) is one. Marc Chagall's works combine recollection with folklore and fantasy. Biblical themes characterize a series of etchings executed between 1925 and 1939, illustrating the Old Testament, and the 12 stained-glass windows in the Hadassah Hospital of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem (1962). In 1973 Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall (National Museum of the Marc Chagall Biblical Message) was opened in Nice, France, to house hundreds of his biblical works. Chagall executed many prints illustrating literary classics. A canvas completed in 1964 covers the ceiling of the Opéra in Paris, and two large murals (1966) hang in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. An exhibition of the artist's work from 1967 to 1977 was held at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, in 1977-78, and a major retrospective was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1985. Marc Chagall died March 28, 1985, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. For more info on Eric Minh Swenson or project inquiries visit his website :www.thuvanarts.com ART SERIES: www.thuvanarts.com/take1 MUSIC VIDEOS: www.thuvanarts.com/musicvideos