MARC CHAGALL AND HIS TIMES: A Documentary Narrat

This book presents a new and comprehensive biography of one of the most prominent artists of the twentieth century in dialogue with the events and ideologies of his time. It includes hundreds of private letters and documents written by Chagall and his contemporaries in Russian, Yiddish, French, English, and other languages, translated by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav into English and placed in their personal and historical context. The narrative encompasses Chagall's long life (1887-1985) in Russia, France, and the United States, as well as in Germany and Israel. It also explores his deep roots in folk culture, his personal relationships and loves, and his involvement with the art of the Russian Revolution, Surrealism, Communism, Zionism, Yiddish literature, and the State of Israel. The book exposes the complex relationships between Chagall's three cultural identities: Jewish, Russian, and French. It is a biography of the turbulent times of the twentieth century and the transformations of a Jew in it -- his meteoric rise from the "ghetto" of the Russian Pale of Settlement to the centers of modern culture.