Marc Chagall Exhibit Pulled from Troubled Metropolitan Museum in Fresno, CA
FRESNO, CA.- Trouble keeps coming to Fresno’s cultural centerpiece as an exhibitor pulled 65 etchings by Marc Chagall over the weekend fearing the Metropolitan Museum is about to shut for good. Reilly Rhodes arrived unannounced Sunday to claim the pieces on behalf of the Laguna Niguel-based Contemporary and Modern Print Exhibitions. He says the Met owes him nearly $10,000 for the exhibit, titled “Chagall for Children.” But Rhodes said he’s more afraid that he’d be unable to retrieve the art if the faltering museum padlocks its doors. The exhibit opened in mid-September and had been scheduled to close Jan. 3.
The Met recently underwent a three-year, $28 million renovation that it had to borrow $15 million to complete. It has lost benefactors because of the bad economy.
The exhibition was based on two popular literary documents: Les Ames mortes (The Dead Souls) by 19th-century Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol, and Selected Fables, by 18th-century French author Jean de La Fontaine. Chagall’s familiar, cartoonish whimsy is in full view here as he retells these tales in his own unique fashion. This exhibition focused on the early etchings of the 1920s, when Chagall had moved to Paris to seek artistic freedom from the perils of post-Revolution Russian life. Chagall produced more than 200 etchings for the Parisian art dealer and publisher Ambrose Vollard, beginning with a commission to illustrate Dead Souls, the masterpiece of 19th-century Russian literature by Nikolai Gogol.
From 1923 to 1925, Chagall created 107 etchings to illustrate this powerful tale of Russian village life. In the novel, Gogol creates and Chagall would illustrate vignettes describing gossipy women, grotesque misers, venal officials, a drunken coachman and others. Hardly had Chagall completed the work for Dead Souls when Vollard commissioned a second series of etchings, for the Fables of la Fontaine.
April 4, 1984 marked the beginning of 21 years of museum space that would serve Fresno well, if imperfectly. The date featured a ribbon cutting ceremony and dedications. First through the door were the children of Fresno, symbolic of the Museum’s continuing role to serve the community of the curious. Visit : http://www.fresnomet.org/
Some information from: The Fresno Bee, http://www.fresnobee.com
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