Marc Chagall was born in Russia; he
entered art school in St Petersburg in 1907. His early style combined primitive
representation of fold art with the more sophisticated influences of Gaugin and
the Fauves whose work he saw in St Petersburg.
In 1910 Chagall went to Paris, but
returned to his hometown of Vitesbsk by 1914. This is when he joined the Knave
of Diamond Group. Declaring their admiration for French painting this group
mounted an exhibition designed as protest against the Moscow Art School. After
the revolution in 1917, Chagall briefly became the Director of Vitebsk Art
School.
His richly coloured lyrical paintings
depict objects and people in unusual juxtapositions, often floating in
space. His later work produced designs for the ballet, stained glass
windows, painting for the ceiling of the Paris Opera and for the Metropolitan
Opera House, New York.
Chagall died in 1985 but his work
hangs in all major galleries throughout the world, and he is thought by many to
be one of the greatest artists of the Twentieth Century.