Chagall's graphic art

Chagall made just under two thousand works of graphic art, including eleven hundred lithographs and six hundred etchings. Then there are his woodcuts and linocuts. Chagall was greatly inspired by the possibilities offered by this array of graphic techniques. He also liked their reproducibility. It enabled him to make books of his art with which he could reach a larger public. This is very much what he strove for when creating lithographs in large editions.

Chagall also loved to experiment with reproduction techniques that are not counted among his art prints, such as special colour prints, collotypes and pochoirs.

lithographs

Due in part to Chagall's lack of space in Berlin for painting, he devoted himself to lithography. His first (black-and-white) lithographs appeared in 1922/23. Much time would pass before Chagall felt confident enough to issue colour lithographs. Back in France after World War II, despite the encouragement of many, he was unsatisfied working with the not yet fully developed technique for making colour lithographs. He found the possibilities to be too limited. Only in 1954 did he start to feel that the lithographic stones were challenging him like talismans and that he was in control of them. An unprecedented torrent of colour lithographs broke loose.

Large editions made his work accessible to the many, rather than restricting it to an elite of art buyers. Chagall could thus bear out a message with his work. The enormous popularity of his series of Parisian colour lithographs from 1954 led him to create colour lithographs to accompany tales from the Old Testament: La bible in 1956, and Dessins pour la bible in 1960.

etchings

In 1922, Chagall did twenty-six etchings for his autobiographical novel Ma vie - his first graphic activity. He continued to etch for the rest of his life, almost always for books, in complete series, like a poet releasing his poems in books of poetry. One of the highlights is the series of thirty aquatint etchings for the Psaumes de David (1979).

other art prints

woodcuts

Chagall's most beautiful woodcuts accompany the sole volume of poetry he wrote, Poèmes (1968). He used 140 wood blocks for this book alone. The Wuyt-collection includes one such colour woodcut in all its stages, done with six blocks of wood. This series offers an excellent opportunity to discover Chagall's method.

linocuts

Chagall created his first linocut in 1939. His second one (also a woodcut) appeared in 1960. He only reverted to linocuts at the end of his life, when working on wood blocks had become too hard for him and the delicate etching on the plate was no longer possible either. A year before his death, his last issued work in book form was a series of six linocuts.

print techniques

pochoirs

The pochoir is a technique making use of templates. It was popular at the beginning of the twentieth century, for instance in Art Deco. To arrive at subtle shades of colour, an ingenious but time-consuming and very complicated method was later invented by Jacomet, which produced stunning results. In 1957-58, Chagall released a volume of thirteen pochoirs, Couleur amour. The edition of 320 copies must have kept Jacomet in business for months. It appeared on hand-made paper made especially for the occasion.

collotypes

The collotype is a special photomechanical process to create colour prints, which can result in wonderful colours. The PHOEBUS series of ten gouaches from Chagall's early years and his years in America is a splendid example of this technique.

colour prints

Since colours play an overwhelming role in the works of Chagall, their production has to be perfect if they are not to sink to the level of mere decorative toilet calendars. The German and Dutch editions of The Bible with works of Marc Chagall are sad examples of flawed productions. Only rarely is a print quite gratifying. There are a couple of prints that Chagall was very satisfied with, such as four illustrations in the book Le cirque d'Izis and the colour prints accompanying Leopold Sedar Senghor's book of poetry Lettres d'hivernage.

=see also collection=