Winnipeg's connection with artist Marc Chagall on display at WAG
Famed 20th-century artist Marc Chagall and works from Winnipeg painter Esther Warkov featured in WAG exhibits
The National Gallery of Canada has loaned the Winnipeg Art Gallery works from 20th-century artist Marc Chagall, for one of three new exhibits.
Chagall: Daphnis & Chloé showcases 42 of Chagall's lithograph prints, widely considered to be the crowning achievement of his career as a printmaker. The WAG currently owns an important print of Chagall's but for many the exhibit on loan from Ottawa will be a great opportunity to see his work.
Andrew Kear, the gallery's curator of historical Canadian art says Chagall's work is important and that these pieces represent some of the most significant print projects that Chagall created in his career.
"He is one of the early modernists, European modernists, who [was] exploring abstraction, expressionism, cutting edge forms of artistic expression."
Chagall is unique, he said.
"He incorporates personal narrative, stories from his own culture, his Jewish culture, European culture and unabashedly brings those into modern art."
Not all modern artists do that, expains Kear. He says that many artists resisted the lure of personal stories and instead made things about the art form. Chagall's pieces are often sentimental and some are even about love. Kear said it's a different side of modernism.
While researching the 'Chagall: Daphnis & Chloé' exhibit, the gallery found a convoluted and interesting connection between Chagall and former WAG director Dr. Ferdinand Eckhardt. The Chagall & Winnipeg exhibit uses letters, photographs and paintings to weave together the story of the friendship between Chagall's wife and the wife of the WAG director.
The third exhibit, Esther Warkov: Paintings, 1960s-80s, features Winnipeg artist Esther Warkov. The gallery has been collecting her work since the 1960s and presented her first solo show in 1964. The gallery has almost 50 pieces from the distinctive Manitoba artist and this exhibit showcases her work from a period of time when she was emerging on the national and international arts stage.
Kear said the art of Warkov and Chagall have some commonalities.
"From a distance, [Warkov's artwork] appears to be telling a story. There are figures that are interacting. There seems to be some kind of narrative. But the longer you look at it the more you get confused. You're sort of scrambled by it. There's a story there, but it's this kind of partial story. It's [like] this strange dream," said Kear.
Both Chagall exhibits run until Sept. 11 and the Warkov exhibit runs until Oct. 16. The WAG is hosting a talk and tour on May 28 at 3 p.m. with Sonia Del Re from the National Gallery of Canada, and on June 8th there is an Art for Lunch talk with Kear.