Chagall and Some Good News

We followed the good weather West to Liverpool yesterday; travelling to Tate Liverpool to see the Chagall exhibition before it closes on 6th October.  Chagall is not a particular favourite of mine and I certainly do not hold with the Picasso quote on the wall towards the end of the exhibition that states that with the death of Matisse, Chagall would be the only artist left who understood colour.  Chagall's colour seems to me, mostly raw primaries or hues used straight from the tube; the use of Viridian green straight from the tube is a pet hate of mine!  His gouache studies are much better with their use of colour and compositions that employed patterns to greater effect than in the large canvases.  I could happily have taken any of the small pieces home. 

I was disappointed that the exhibition did not include any of his more well know "dream" type paintings but this is because the exhibition deals with Chagall's time in Paris before WW1 and in Russia after the outbreak of WW1 and the Russian Revolution, where he became trapped after he had returned to Vitebsk, his home town, after his time in Berlin where he had an exhibition of his work.

What I do like about Chagall's work: 

• His use of imagery that refers to his Hasidic community and the village of Vitebsk where he came from.
• The development of personal symbols and use of colour that referred to his life and his belief that his emotions linked to colour.
• His use of scale within compositions; tiny figures are depicted amongst huge ones.
• His use of patterning within his compositions often referring to his Jewish roots.

When we returned home I found two nice emails; I am pleased to be able to say that I have been included in the selection of artists for the  Art Connections Artists Directory.  Information and images will be uploaded over the next month as part of the redevelopment of the web site. The selection panel were: Sara Trentham: Freelance Arts Manager & Consultant, formerly Arts Council England Visual Arts Officer; Grace Whowell: Freelance Curator, formerly curator at Platform Gallery, Clitheroe and the Art Connections team.  Art Connections are part of Chrysalis Arts, an organisation dedicated to supporting, connecting and developing arts and artists, and an organisation that I have a better understanding of since Rick Faulkner gave a talk about their work to Ryedale ArtWorks recently.

The second email was from Paula Briggs of Access Art, awarding me one of their stars.  An Access Art Star is awarded to people working at grassroots level who they feel have demonstrated particular commitment, enthusiasm or motivation in inspiring others through visual arts education. You can find out more about the AccessArt Stars here: http://www.accessart.org.uk/be-an-accessart-star/  Needless to say, I am delighted to receive one.