ReViews: Catalog Capsule

Chagall: Love, War and Exile

By Susan Tumarkin Goodman, with an essay by Kenneth E. Silver (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), 148 pp., 72 color illustrations, 27 black and white illustrations, $45.00 (clothbound)

For many people, the name Chagall conjures up images of colorful, ethereal paintings and stained glass windows—likely felicitous scenes. However, this is far from the focus of Chagall: Love, War and Exile, a recent exhibit at The Jewish Museum of New York. The exhibit—and catalog of the same name—chronicle a darker period of Marc Chagall’s life: the 1930s and 1940s. During this period, Europe—and life as Chagall knew it—dissolved into war and strife. Forced into exile, Chagall was helpless to intervene in the atrocities of World War II. It should come as no surprise that these tumultuous years had a major impact on his art, with images of Jewish suffering and persecution becoming prominent. One image in particular is pronounced: the crucified Jesus.