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Information to Users INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandardmargins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographicaily in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Com pany 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. Order Number 1355629 The Judaic heritage: A key to understanding the works of Marc Chagall and Chaim Soutine Gross, Eva Elizabeth, M.A. The American University, 1993 UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproductionFurther reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. THE JUDAIC HERITAGE: A KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE WORKS OF MARC CHAGALL AND CHAIM SOUTINE by Eva E. Gross submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Performing Arts: Arts Management Signatures of Committee: Chai / / gjjJL Dean ofthe College Date 1993 The American University Washington, D.C. 20016 the zhjzica.: UiiZTSEsm lierapz Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE JUDAIC HERITAGE: A KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE WORKS OF MARC CHAGALL AND CHAIM SOUTINE BY EVA E. GROSS ABSTRACT The paintings created by Marc Chagaii and Chaim Soutine cannot be fully understood without placing them in the context of their Judaic heritage. In the past, art historians have focused on the formal qualities of their art, and not the context in which they were created, thereby overlooking the foundation of their art. Both painters recreated Judaic rituals and laws through their art. Chagall portrayed his heritage lovingly, and created whimsical paintings of Judaic traditions. Soutine rebelled against his heritage, and chose to paint subjects that were strictly forbidden by Mosaic laws. By studying the biographies of both artists, analyzing the symbolism in over one hundred paintings, and relating these works to specific periods in the artists' lives, the author found their art to be imbued with Judaic symbolism. Therefore, the content of their work relied heavily on Judaic culture, and cannot be understood without some knowledge of their heritage. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................ii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................1 2. MARC CHAGALL: BACKGROUND AND ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT............................................................................................6 3. ANALYSIS OF JUDAIC IMAGERY IN SELECTED PAINTINGS BY MARC CHAGALL.........................................................................................25 4. CHAIM SOUTINE: BACKGROUND AND ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT.......................................................................................... 40 5. ANALYSIS OF JUDAIC IMAGERY IN SELECETD PAINTINGS BY CHAIM SOUTINE............................. 48 6. CONCLUSION............................................................................................. 59 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................62 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A work of art can never truly be understood without an awareness of the cultural aspects, historical relations, and personal elements that it contains.1 In recent years, there has been a tendency for art historians to view art objects for their formal qualities: color, line and form, and not the context in which they were created, therefore denying the individual and cultural experiences that are central to the creative process. There has been a claim by art critics such as H. H. Arnason, Helen Gardner and Herschel Chipp that modern art is built on the aesthetic precedents of other works of art, and that its formal problems grow out of older formal problems.2 We have, therefore, been conditioned to overlook the relations and tensions between the artist and his/her background, culture, sources and concerns. Pincus-Witten, the author of Eye to Eve: Twenty Years of Art Criticism, stresses that conventional art history has dismissed the tension between art's social and personal properties and its strictly formal or artistic properties.3 Edmund Feldman, the author of Varieties of Visual Experience, states that art criticism should be: ^vram Kampf, Jewish Experience in the Art of the Twentieth Century (South Hadley, Mass: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, Inc., 1984), 7. 2H. H. Arnason, Helen Gardner and Herschel Chipp have made statements in their books History of Modern Art. Art. Through the Ages and Theories of Modern Art. respectively that the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture are arts of formal qualities: color, line and form, and for that reason it is essential to approach these arts in the twentieth century, or in any other period, strictly through an analysis of the artist's attitude toward these qualities, and through the relation that these arts bear to the works of art of earlier periods. 3Robert Pincus-Witten, Eve to Eve: Twenty Years of Art Criticism (Ann Arbor: U.M.I. Research Press, 1984), 3. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 the sharing of discoveries about life, where art has its beginnings.4 This view emphasizes the fact that the conventional focus on the formal qualities of art diminishes the ability to fully understanding the content.5 Therefore, there is a need to acknowledge, develop and expand the accepted mode of art criticism to place works of art in their correct cultural context, thereby enriching artistic knowledge, and encouraging greater participation in the sharing of cultural experience. This thesis will focus on the cultural heritage shared, intensified, and transformed by Marc Chagall and Chaim Soutine, both Orthodox Jewish artists, and will illuminate the context of their work, a context which has been largely ignored by contemporary art historians, managers and critics.6 Their art will be analyzed in the context of the ancient, potent and resilient culture of Judaism, which is still undergoing vital transformation. Failure to recognize the expression of a specific Jewish experience in twentieth-century art stems largely from a prejudice of modern historiography which "studies history in terms of nation states and often ignores the strength of the culture in Europe whose history is not bounded by political geography."7 The culture of the Jews of Eastern Europe transcended political borders, so that Jews of Poland, Lithuania, Romania, the Ukraine, and other nation states shared a pervasive identity and language, and had more in common with one another than they did with the ethnic majorities of the countries in which they lived. From the late nineteenth century the culture of the Jews of Eastern Europe spread across the world, and they sustained their ties through their common religious traditions, their ways of thinking and feeling, their language, and their unique historical consciousness. 4Doug Blandy and Dristin Congdon, Pluralistic Approaches to Art Criticism (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991), 1. 5 Kampf, 8. 6Ibid., 10. 7 Ib id . Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This cultural tie is evident in the paintings of Marc Chagall and Chaim Soutine. Since World War I, they have occupied an important place among contemporary artists. Their influence and authority have been steadily increasing.8 One of
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