VITEBSK, 27 April (BelTA) – The exposition titled as Marc Chagall and Artists of the European Avant-Garde Movement has opened in the Marc Chagall Art Center in Vitebsk, BelTA has learned.
The exposition includes over 100 color and white-and-black lithographs and woodblock prints. The exposition is divided into two parts. The first floor is dedicated to Marc Chagall's lithographs and the second one to works by the artists of the European avant-garde movement, namely Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Fernand Leger, Alberto Giacometti, Antoni Tapies and others. The exhibition also features a wide range of photographs and biographical materials. All the works are originals and are part of the collection of the museum.
“We have not exhibited them for three years. During that time they were shown in several European museums. They were displayed last in Wroclaw, Poland as part of the EU's initiative “European Capital of Culture 2016”. Our museum represented Belarus with this very same exhibition,” director of the museum Irina Voronova said. According to her, no Belarusian museum can boast of having such works.
People have the opportunity to see these works of art thanks to the German collector Henrich Mandel. He made his first donation to the museum in 1993. Since then the donation of works by Marc Chagall and avant-garde artists of the 20th century has become an annual tradition. Thanks to Henrich Mandel the museum's collection has both early and later works of the artist. For 17 years, he has donated more than 300 paintings by avant-garde artists of the 20th century, including those by Marc Chagall. Henrich Mandel also donated his library collection, for example the small-circulation magazines published in France in the middle of the 20th century. At that time the magazines cooperated with all big-name artists.
“Some of these editions contain original graphic sheets. The magazines were bound in a way, which allowed easily removing these works for display purposes,” Irina Voronova noted. She added that the museum has almost all the editions.
The exhibition will stay open in Vitebsk till 6 July.
