More Amazing Than The Crucifixion
More amazing that the crucifixion
was, of course, the holocaust.
That’s why some believe it’s fiction,
view Jew-haters have endorsed.
Sad fact is that truly it
occurred––six million crucified,
and not just one. Though Holy Writ
does not include them by his side,
Chagall has done this. From the cross
the Christ looks sadly down, an SS-man
observing bloody feet, a boss
who’ll claim he was a minor yes-man
to that atrocity we see
on Golgotha has taken place;
he never will confess that he
deserves great blame. The Jewish race
survived this SS-man’s attack
whose evil has been called banal,
confusing merely white and black!
confusion not one Marc Chagall
made showing cruelty to Christ
who’s cringing on the cross. Some think
they know why he was sacrificed.
I from such explanations shrink,
confronted by the genocide
of all the millions who were killed
with gas used like a pesticide
by people more than Romans skilled
in culture and humanity,
some God-believers, even, whose
world-views saw no profanity
in crucifixion of the Jews.
Inspired by an article by Randy Kennedy in the NYT on January 2,2010, describing the purchase of a Chagall gouache depicting the crucifixion by the London:
The London Jewish Museum of Art is a scrappy young institution, created in 2001 and camped in rented space in St. John’s Wood, off the beaten track of London’s art world. But over the last nine years the museum has been diligently trying to forge a reputation for itself, adding more than 100 works to an already substantial collection that grew out of that of the Ben Uri Gallery, a Jewish artists’ society founded in London in 1915. So when David Glasser, one of the museum’s chairmen, was perusing a Paris auction catalog a few months ago, he found it hard to believe what he saw: a previously unknown 1945 gouache by Marc Chagall. It was one of a small group of images Chagall made in direct response to the Holocaust, after he and his wife had fled France in 1941, after the German occupation and after he had begun to learn the details of the Nazi atrocities. The gouache on heavy paper, which Chagall signed and titled himself lightly with a pencil in Russian — “Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio” — employs one of his familiar motifs, an image of a crucified Jesus, which he used as a metaphor for persecuted Jewry. But this crucifixion, painted in New York, where Chagall settled for several years, is one of the most brutal and disturbing ever created by an artist primarily known for his brightly colored folkloric visions. “Apocalypse” shows a naked Christ screaming at a Nazi storm trooper below the cross, who has a backwards swastika on his arm, a Hitler-like mustache and a serpentine tail. Another small figure can be seen crucified and a second being hanged, and a man appears to be poised to stab a child. A damaged, upside-down clock falls from the sky. The darkness and directness of the work may have been a response not only to the war but also to the death of Chagall’s wife, Bella, a year earlier from a viral infection that might have been treated if not for wartime medicine shortages….
And beginning on Thursday, it will go on public display for the first time, at the Osborne Samuel gallery in Mayfair, before moving into the museum’s permanent collection at the end of the month. In going on view, it will become another of the notable publicly exhibited examples of Chagall’s wartime imagery, like the “Yellow Crucifixion” from 1943, at the Georges Pompidou Center, and the “White Crucifixion” from 1938 at the Art Institute of Chicago. “Although in many of his works Chagall had reacted to events in Germany, he usually did not depict them but used symbols — such as the crucifixion, a Jew holding a Torah, a mother protecting her child or a falling angel — to suggest what was happening there, ” writes Ziva Amishai-Maisels, a Chagall scholar and professor emeritus at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in a catalog to accompany the exhibition of the painting. “Although he still used some of these symbols in ‘Apocalypse, ’ he combined them with the reality of the Holocaust in a manner that was very rare in his work. This and the way he depicted the conflict between the Nazi and the naked Christ make this a unique work.” Ms. Baron, of the Art Fund, agreed. “I think it is really a tremendous coup, ” she said, “to get it for this collection and for the country.”
1/2/10
poem by Gershon Hepner
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Related quotes
I work in whatever medium likes me at the moment.
quote by Marc Chagall
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If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.
quote by Marc Chagall
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Work isn't to make money; you work to justify life.
quote by Marc Chagall
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Great art picks up where nature ends.
quote by Marc Chagall
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I adore the theater and I am a painter. I think the two are made for a marriage of love. I will give all my soul to prove this once more.
quote by Marc Chagall
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The fingers must be educated, the thumb is born knowing.
quote by Marc Chagall
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All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.
quote by Marc Chagall
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Judy and You and Chagall
What did you think
of the Chagall postcard print
I bought you?
Judy asked as you both sat
outside the Fox Inn
I pinned it on my wall
you replied
and stared at it every time
I entered the room
thinking of you
she sipped her drink
her eyes searching you
her hair tied behind
in a ponytail
so I gathered
by your letters
she said
putting her glass
on the small wooden table
I missed you
you said
I went to London
while you were away
and saw you
in every girl I saw
even at the ballet
at the opera house
she looked at her glass
I was only away for a week
she said
it seemed a year
you said
you inhaled the cigarette
you were holding
taking in her hair
and eyes and how
her lips moved
as she spoke
Florence was fantastic
she said
I picked out
that Chagall print for you
in one of the art galleries
who did you go with?
you asked
friends
she replied
male or female?
both
she said
you inhaled the cigarette again
and thought of the first time
you kissed her
how the moonlight
shone on her face
as you moved her around
you mustn't be so jealous
she said
I have to see others
who was the guy?
Henrik
she said
you imagined her
and this Henrik
making out
in some Florence hotel
his hands touching her
I thought of you
every moment
you said
that's sad
she said
why?
you said
because no one
should think of another
that often
she sipped her drink
and looked around
at the evening sky
how was Florence?
beautiful
she said
like you
you said
I am like Shakespeare's' lily
she said
as it withers
she added
I see
you said
and you studied
her hands as they lifted
the glass to her lips
the fingers
the skin
the way they held
the glass
did you read my letters
when you got home?
you asked
yes
she said
every single one
my mother said
I must have besotted
some poor soul
and you thought
of the Chagall print
and how you had sniffed it
for traces of her scent
and remembered
your mother's words
nothing is given forever
things in this world
are only lent.
poem by Terry Collett
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They Called Him Meyer July
They called him Mayer and July,
in Poland, though July became
for him quite obsolete, this name
changed into Kirschenblatt. Here’s why
we ought still to remember Mayer.
As Kirschenblatt, and born in Apt,
the place which in old age he mapped
with an artistic, frenzied fire,
he used to paint each street where he
grew up, before Apt was destroyed
by Nazis. It is not a void
today since he made sure we’d see
the place as it existed still
within his mind. More than Chagall,
he made sure it would not be null.
On paper, paint he used to spill
brought life back to the Jews we see
as if alive while in the mind
of those who have not left behind,
as he did not, their memory.
Jeffrey Shandler writes an obituary of Mayer Kirschenblatt who started painting scenes of his childhood home on his 50th wedding anniversary, at the age of 73 and lived in Canada since 1934. He recently died at the age of 93 not long after an exhibition of his art at the Jewish art, preserved in a book published in 2007, “They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust”.
12/8/09
poem by Gershon Hepner
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When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it - a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand - as a final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there's a clash between the two, it's bad art.
quote by Marc Chagall
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When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand as a final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If theres a clash between the two, its bad art.
quote by Marc Chagall
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Chagall At The Israel Museum
CHAGALL AT THE ISRAEL MUSEUM
Beauty surprises,
There is a joy which only color sings,
I have seen this world before
I did not know how moving it still is,
,
This is really what love is,
Surrounded by flowers
Deep in each other eyes
And floating far away
What youth was.
Here and now
And yet lost in our grandparents dreams
These shtetl faces and these barnyard images
A world lost
Yet here more with us
Than we
in our own paltry artistic efforts
Will ever be.
Eternity must be like this
And the greatness of life too
It will always
Make us dream
poem by Shalom Freedman
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The paintings by Van Gough and Chagall had a big influence on me.
Only love interests me, and I am only in contact with things that revolve around love.
quote by Marc Chagall
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The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.
quote by Marc Chagall
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love.
quote by Marc Chagall
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Paul was to know and proclaim God's will, His purpose, in view of Israel's rejection of christ. Had god been taken by surprise in the crucifixion of Christ Would He now be forced to resort to some makeshift arrangement No, for the crucifixion was all part of--indeed, the central part of, His secret, eternal plan, now revealed to Paul.
quote by Cornelius Stam
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Don't let that horse
Don't let that horse
eat that violin
cried Chagall's mother
But he
kept right on
painting
And became famous
And kept on painting
The Horse With Violin In Mouth
And when he finally finished it
he jumped up upon the horse
and rode away
waving the violin
And then with a low bow gave it
to the first naked nude he ran across
And there were no strings
attached
poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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Ashamed To Honour Symbolic Death Crucifixion?
this one polished show claimed to be a Christian
yet when rare gifted he was with two unique poems
powerfully written in embodied bold Holy Spirit
this one swiftly destroyed these unique blessings
claimed people might believe him a religious nut
disciples of Jesus originally fear denounced Christ
in shock terror mortal fear for their threatened lives
followers fearing flogging crucifixion a criminal death
later disciples Holy Spirit lead witnessed their truth
were prepared to die and did for Christ their master
this one thinks martyr's crown in heaven foolishness
of five crowns worn in heaven martyrs crown highest
why of the five crowns is martyrs crown highest?
worn only by Christian martyrs who died in Christ
this one renounces Christ's name as inconvenient
is ashamed to honour symbolic death crucifixion?
poem by Terence George Craddock
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An Early Resurrection
This was at Golgotha
the Skull Place
where Christ
was crucified to save
from consequences of sin
the entire human race!
But nothing strange happened
while Christ was on the Cross
right? To prove...
this was God’s Son? Wrong! ! !
“Well, by now it was about
the sixth hour, and yet
a darkness fell over all the earth
until the ninth hour, because the sunlight
failed; then the curtain of the sanctuary
was rent down the middle.” Luke 23: 44.
Darkness never fell across the entire earth
at this time right? It is a fairy tale right? Wrong! ! !
It is historically recorded at Tarsus,
in China, the Americas. The exact date,
to the day, the exact time, the exact
duration of time! Research! Check it! I have! ...
“Again Jesus cried out
with a loud voice,
and yielded up [his] spirit.” Matthew 27: 50.
And nothing happened right
because he was not
the Son of God right? Wrong! ! ! (Revelation 5: 5-7.)
“And, look! the curtain
of the sanctuary
was rent in two,
from top to bottom,
and the earth quaked,
and the rock-masses were split.” Matthew 27: 51.
God’s testimony
that this was his
only begotten son! ! ! (John 3: 16-19.)
Why rent
curtain of the sanctuary
from top to bottom?
Because Christ came
from heaven to be born (John 1: 14.)
on earth as ransom
sacrifice paid for your sins. (Matthew 20: 28.)
Because God watching in heaven
shook the earth in sorrow
split the rock-masses
to testify; prove this was His Son. (Matthew 27: 51.)
Earthquakes are one of God’s signs (Isaiah 2: 19.)
as the earth quaked at Christ’s death
so will there “be great earthquakes, (Revelation 6: 12.)
and in one place after another pestilences
and food shortages; and there will be fearful
sights and from heaven great signs.” Luke 21: 11.
These will be signs of the last days before
returns the one called Faithful and True. (Revelation: 19: 11.)
But their was no testimony from a man,
a Roman official at the time of the crucifixion,
that this was the Son of God right? Wrong! ! !
'Now, when the army officer
that was standing by with him in view saw
he had expired under these circumstances,
he said: “ Certainly this man was God’s Son.”' Mark 15: 39.
But Romans worshipped false Gods!
No Roman official witness, would
openly praise a condemned criminal,
crucified upon a torture stake! Right? Wrong! ! !
'Because of seeing what occurred,
the army officer began to glorify God,
saying: “Really this man was righteous.”' Luke 23: 47.
But the Rulers who had sneered,
at Christ as he was upon the Cross; (Luke 23: 35.)
and the soldiers who had made
fun of him, still boasted insulted, (Luke 23: 36.)
Christ dead upon the Cross? Right? Wrong! ! !
“And all the crowds that were gathered
together there for this spectacle,
when they beheld the things that occurred,
began to return, beating their breasts.” Luke 23: 48.
But the army officer, and the brave Roman
soldiers, were not afraid; never witnessed
that they believed, this man they had killed
as a criminal; that this was God’s Son? Right? Wrong! ! !
'But the army officer and those with him
watching over Jesus, when they saw
the earthquake and the things happening,
grew very much afraid, saying:
“Certainly this was God’s Son.”' Matthew 27: 54.
But after these things had occurred,
nothing else happened to prove,
beyond further argument doubt,
that Jesus was definitely God’s;
only begotten son? Right? Wrong! ! !
“And the memorial tombs were opened,
and many bodies of the holy ones
that had fallen asleep were raised up,
(and persons, coming out from among
the memorial tombs after being raised up,
entered into the holy city,)
and they became visible to many people.” Matthew 27: 52-53.
The holy ones, dead in memorial tombs,
God raised up to see the holy sacrifice;
to witness the sacrifice, the Lamb of God, (John 1: 29.)
dead upon the Cross. The holy ones entered
God’s holy city Jerusalem. Resurrected by God.
And what do you think they said? You of no faith?
But none of the Jews from the council,
believed in Christ, or risked their life;
to ask for his torn, crucified body? Right? Wrong! ! !
“And, look! A man named Joseph,
who was a member of the Council,
a good and righteous man- this [man]
had not voted in support of their design
and action – he was from Arimathea,
a city of Judeans, and was waiting
for the kingdom of God; this man went
to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.” Luke 23: 50-53.
poem by Terence George Craddock
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