About This Art

     Chagall's original lithographic work included illustrations, posters and large editions issued in various publications, as well as separately issued prints. By the end of his life, he had created more than 1,000 prints, most of which were lithographs.
     Chagall, a prolific painter, was also a book illustrator, stained glass artist, and costume designer. His painting style drew on both Cubism and Orphism. He used these styles to create his spatial dislocations and prismatic color effects.
     During World War II, Chagall fled to the United States. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, gave him a retrospective in 1946. He settled permanently in France in 1948 and exhibited in Paris, Amsterdam, and London. During 1951, he visited Israel and executed his first sculptures. The following year, the artist traveled in Greece and Italy. During the 1960s, Chagall continued to travel widely, often in association with large-scale commissions he received. Among these were windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, installed in 1962; a ceiling for the Paris Opéra, installed in 1964; a window for the United Nations building, New York, installed in 1964; murals for the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, installed in 1967; and windows for the cathedral in Metz, France, installed in 1968. An exhibition of the artist’s work from 1967 to 1977 was held at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, in 1977–78, and a major retrospective was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1985.