When it was over and done with, perhaps the main thing that stood out about the Soviet Union was its success in restricting the character of its citizens. As Masha Gessen wrote in her 2016 book “The Future is History,” in every totalitarian state “The shaping of the New Man is the regime’s explicit project.”…
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. In honor of the 125th birthday of Russian-Jewish artist Solomon Yudovin, a modest yet captivating exhibit at Russia’s St. Petersburg Jewish Community Center highlights some of his best work, including historical photographs, drawings and book illustrations. Of particular interest: A number of his watercolors from the 1930s,…
(JTA) — The hometown in Belarus of the late artist Marc Chagall saw its first opening of a synagogue in over a century. The Jewish community of Vitebsk, which is located 155 miles northeast of the Belarusian capital of Minsk, last month celebrated the inauguration of the new synagogue. Vitebsk’s rabbi, Malkiel Gorgodze, affixed a…
A play about the marriage of Marc and Bella Chagall has won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award. The Award, presented annually since 2004 and considered the most prestigious of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, comes with a unique prize: A production in New York City. Any Fringe production yet to be staged in New…
Union Church, in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Pocantico Hills, fits right into its bucolic surroundings. The sloping roof, modest bell tower and facade of rough local stone give it the look of a stately cottage. It’s easy to imagine that Marc Chagall, whose works brim over with nostalgia for his shtetl childhood, must have…
Theater director Emma Rice excused herself for being rather emotional. Her cast had just completed its first run-through of “The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk,” and she said the experience had left her slightly at a loss for words. “I’m sort of in love with it at the moment,” she said, laughing, “so I have no…
At Art Basel in Miami a few weeks ago, it rained a lot, and some critics scorned the commercial excess with extra sharpness. For Basel art in Washington on a recent morning, the sun lit the season’s last leaves and intimate galleries showed rarely seen paintings. A room devoted to Chaïm Soutine and Marc Chagall…
“Chagall-Malevich” is an exhilarating paean to the uplifting power of art. Part docu-drama, part fantasy, the film is largely based on the life of Marc Chagall, widely considered the greatest Jewish artist of the 20th Century. Born Moishe Shagal into a Hasidic community in the Pale of the Settlement, Chagall found and pursued his passion…
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