The Art Gallery of Ontario Presents Marc Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde

Written by Alex Woolsley Sunday, 15 April 2012 21:23

Toronto.- The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is bringing the magic, whimsy and wonder of Marc Chagall to Toronto with a major exhibition organized by the Centre Pompidou. "Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris" on view from October 18th through January 15th 2012, features the lush, colourful, and dreamlike art of Marc Chagall alongside the visionaries of Russian modernism, including Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, Natalia Goncharova, Sonia Delaunay, and Vladimir Tatlin. Drawn from the collection of the Centre Pompidou, the exhibition examines how Chagall’s Russian heritage influenced and informed his artistic practice, illustrating how he at turns embraced and rejected broader movements in art history as he developed his widely beloved style.

Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde comprises 118 works from a broad array of media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, and film. The artwork is drawn entirely from the collection of the Centre Pompidou and features 32 works by Chagall and eight works by Kandinsky.

“Centre Pompidou is one of the world’s preeminent art museums and we at the AGO are deeply grateful — and very excited — to be able to share these highlights from its collection with our visitors,” says Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO’s Michael and Sonja Koerner Director, and CEO. “The visual relationship — both complementary and contrasting — of Chagall’s emotive figurations with the abstractions of the Russian avant-garde tells a compelling and complex story of influence and heritage, contextualizing Chagall within the art movements of his homeland for the very first time and offering visitors an opportunity to discuss, debate, and connect with some outstanding works of art.” “Built around the great figure of Marc Chagall and the exceptional collection of our museum, this exhibition is an opportunity to consider the exceptional work of the Russian avant-garde from Chagall’s perspective,” says Alfred Pacquemont, director of the Musée national d’art moderne in Centre Pompidou. “Our collection of works by Chagall includes key works from Chagall’s personal collection, many of which were gifts of the artist and his family; works by Kandinsky, Gontcharova, and Delaunay are also among our collection’s highlights.


We are privileged that the Art Gallery of Ontario will host this exhibition for its only North American showing, and that these great works—many of which rarely leave our museum—will be experienced and enjoyed by a Canadian audience.” “From cubo-futurism and constructivism to folk art and expressionism, Chagall’s influences are as wide-ranging and divergent as his work is boldly original and singularly imaginative,” says Elizabeth Smith, the AGO’s executive director of curatorial affairs. “This exhibition encourages new perspectives on Chagall’s artistic development, and offers a comprehensive presentation of outstanding artwork by the 20th century’s most imaginative and engaging Russian artists.”Angela Lampe, curator of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, is the organizing curator of Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris. The exhibition is organized by Le Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou.

Founded in 1900 by a group of private citizens as the Art Museum of Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, with a physical facility of 583,000 square feet. The AGO expanded it facility in 2008 with an innovative architectural design by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry. The AGO holds more than 80,000 works in its collection, which spans from 100 A.D. to the present. The Canadian collection vividly documents the development of the nation's art heritage since pre-Confederation, including one of the largest and finest Inuit art collections in the world. The collection includes pivotal works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Lucius O'Brien, James Wilson Morrice, Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, David Milne, Emily Carr, Paul-Emile Borduas, Joyce Wieland, and Kenojuak Ashevak. Masterpieces of European art include works by renowned artists such as Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte. The AGO maintains a comprehensive collection of Contemporary art spanning from 1960 to the present, reflecting global developments in artistic practice across all media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, projection art, and installation art. The collection is defined by strong holdings of leading Canadian artists such as David Altmejd, Brian Jungen, Francoise Sullivan, Jeff Wall, Shirley Wiitasalo, and inflected by major works by international artists such as Mona Hatoum, Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Tino Sehgal, Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Kara Walker, and Andy Warhol. Artists represented in career-spanning depth include Iain Baxter & / N.E. Thing Co, Jack Bush, Betty Goodwin, General Idea, Robert Motherwell, Kazuo Nakamura, Greg Curnoe, and Michael Snow. The AGO houses the world's largest public collection of works by internationally renowned British sculptor Henry Moore.

A collection of more than 40,000 photographs represents the emergence of the medium in all its artistic, cultural and social diversity. Works by 19th-century British, French, American and Canadian photographers, and 20th-century modernists, including a significant group of 1850s prints by British photographer Linnaeus Tripe, one of the foremost collections of works by Czech photographer Josef Sudek, and more than 18,000 press photographs from the Klinsky Press Agency taken in the 1930s and 40s. The Thomson Collection at the AGO includes a broad range of works, from European to Canadian art, ship models and decorative arts. Its European collection includes 900 works from the 12th to the 19th century, featuring Peter Paul Rubens' 17th-century masterpiece, The Massacre of the Innocents. The Canadian collection includes signature works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Paul Kane, Lawren Harris, and Paul-Emile Borduas. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.ago.net

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