Marc Chagall - Exhibitions and Tributes

Exhibitions and Tributes

• In 1960, Brandeis University awarded Marc Chagall an honorary degree in Laws, at its 9th Commencement.
• In 1967, the Louvre in Paris exhibited 17 large-scale paintings and 38 gouaches, under the title of "Message Biblique", which he donated to the nation of France on condition that a museum was to be built for them in Nice. In 1969 work began on the museum, named Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall. It was completed and inaugurated on 7 July 1973, on Chagall's birthday. Today it contains monumental paintings on biblical themes, three stained-glass windows, tapestries, a large mosaic and numerous gouaches for the "Bible series."
• From 1969 to 1970, the Grand Palais in Paris held the largest Chagall exhibition to date, including 474 works. The exhibition was called "Hommage a Marc Chagall", was opened by the French President and "proved an enormous success with the public and critics alike."
• In 1973, he traveled to the Soviet Union, his first visit back since he left in 1922. The Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow had a special exhibition for the occasion of his visit. He was able to see again the murals he long ago made for the Jewish Theatre. In St. Petersburg, he was reunited with two of his sisters, whom he had not seen for more than 50 years.
• In 1977, the city of Jerusalem bestowed upon him the Yakir Yerushalayim (Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) award.
• In 1982, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden organized a retrospective exhibition which later traveled to Denmark.
• In 1985, the Royal Academy in London presented a major retrospective which later traveled to Philadelphia. Chagall was too old to attend the London opening and died a few months later.
• In 2003, a major retrospective of Chagall's career was organized by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, in conjunction with the Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Postage stamp tributes

Because of the international acclaim he enjoyed and the popularity of his art, a number of countries have issued commemorative stamps in his honor depicting examples from his works. In 1963 France issued a stamp of his painting, "The Married Couple of the Eiffel Tower". In 1969, Israel produced a stamp depicting his "King David" painting. In 1973 Israel released a 12-stamp set with images of the stained-glass windows that he created for the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center Synagogue; each window was made to signify one of the "Twelve Tribes of Israel".

In 1987, as a tribute to recognize the centennial of his birth in Belarus, seven nations engaged in a special omnibus program and released potage stamps in his honor. The countries which issued the stamps included Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, The Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Grenada, which together produced 48 stamps and 10 souvenir sheets. Although the stamps all portray his various masterpieces, the names of the artwork are not listed on the stamps.

Current exhibits

• Chagall's work is housed in a variety of locations, including the 'Palais Garnier' (the Opera de Paris), the Art Institute of Chicago, Chase Tower Plaza of downtown Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, the Metz Cathedral, Notre-Dame de Reims, the Fraumünster abbey in Zürich, Switzerland, the Church of St. Stephan in Mainz, Germany and the Biblical Message museum in Nice, France, which Chagall helped to design.
• The only church in the world with a complete set of Chagall window-glass is located in the tiny village of Tudeley, in Kent, England.
• Twelve stained-glass windows are part of Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem, Israel. Each frame depicts a different tribe.
• In the United States, the Union Church of Pocantico Hills contains a set of Chagall windows commemorating the prophets, which was commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr..
• The Lincoln Center in New York City, contains Chagall's huge murals; The Sources of Music and The Triumph of Music are installed in the lobby of the new Metropolitan Opera House, which began operation in 1966. Also in New York, the United Nations Headquarters has a stained glass wall of his work. In 1967 the UN commemorated this artwork with a postage stamp and souvenir sheet.
• In 2007, an exhibition of his work titled "Chagall of Miracles", was held at Il Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, Italy.
• The family home on Pokrovskaya Street, Vitebsk, is now the Marc Chagall Museum.
• The regional art museum in Novosibirsk had a Chagall exhibition on his biblical subjects between 16 June 2010 and 29 August 2010.
• The Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas, Texas currently hosts many of his works as well.
• The Marc Chagall Yufuin Kinrin-ko Museum in Yufuin, Kyushu, Japan, holds about 40-50 of his works.
• Marc Chagall's last painting titled "Job" for the Job Tapestry in Chicago.