Marc Chagall in mosaico

At MAR, a journey into Chagall’s universe through sketches, designs and mosaics

The extraordinary exhibition Marc Chagall in mosaic. From design to work opens the 9th Biennial of Contemporary Mosaic and recounts for the first time the deep connection between one of the most beloved masters of the 20th century and the ancient art of mosaic.

Starting with the iconic Le Coq bleu, a masterpiece from the MAR’s permanent collection, the exhibition traces Chagall’s extraordinary adventure in the world of mosaics, which began in Ravenna in the 1950s. Fascinated by Byzantine mosaics during a trip, Chagall began a collaboration with Ravenna mosaicists that led him to experiment with this technique in a personal, poetic and visionary way.

This was followed by numerous interventions in architectural and public art contexts, the genesis of which is reconstructed in the exhibition through mosaic trials, drawings, pastels, watercolours, tempera, gouache, collages and lithographs, testifying to the creative process that accompanied the realisation of each project. Exceptionally, the large mosaic Le Grand Soleil, originally given by Chagall to his wife Valentina as a gift for their home “La Colline” in Saint Paul de Vance, will also be on display. It was subsequently removed and has not been visible for decades.

The public will be able to discover a little-known but fundamental aspect of Chagall’s poetics: the encounter between colour, light and matter, in dialogue with the architectural space and the excellence of Ravenna’s mosaic tradition.

An entire section will be dedicated to the Ravenna mosaicists who actively collaborated with Chagall in the creation of many of his monumental works, from Nice to Chicago, from Jerusalem to Martigny: Lino and Heidi Melano, Romolo Papa and Antonio Rocchi.

The exhibition also represents a historic moment for Ravenna: for the first time, the original sketch sent by Chagall for the creation of Le Coq bleu will be on display.

A unique opportunity to be surprised by Chagall’s visionary power and the timeless beauty of mosaics.

Curated by the Director General of the Musées nationaux du XXe siècle des Alpes-Maritimes, Anne Dopffér, the Scientific Director of the Museé national Marc Chagall, Gregory Couderc, the Curator of the MAR, Giorgia Salerno, and the Artistic Director of the IX Biennale di Mosaico Contemporaneo, Daniele Torcellini.

A catalog raisonné dedicated to Marc Chagall’s mosaic was produced for the exhibition by the Association des Amis de Marc Chagal in collaboration with the Comité Marc Chagall and the Archives Marc and Ida Chagall, in Paris.