The Dallas Museum of Art is the co-organizer and sole U.S. venue for Chagall: Beyond Color, an internationally touring exhibition of works by Marc Chagall that will examine the artist’s relationship with space and volume across more than 140 paintings, costumes, sketches, ceramics, and sculptures. The centerpiece of the exhibition, on view February 17 through May 26, 2013, is a display of costumes designed by Chagall in 1942 for the production of the ballet Aleko, choreographed by Léonide Massine and set to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A Minor. The ballet’s première took place in September 1942 in Mexico City, followed by the Ballet Theatre of New York production, and the costumes have not been seen in the U.S. since.

“Chagall: Beyond Color offers a new perspective on Marc Chagall’s celebrated career, showcasing a diverse range of rarely exhibited works that advance our understanding of the artist’s use of space,” said Maxwell L. Anderson, The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art. “As the only American venue for Chagall: Beyond Color, we’re especially pleased to present several works that illuminate Chagall’s previously underexplored engagement with the artistic traditions of Mexico and the American Southwest.”

Chagall was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and is perhaps best known for his expressive use of color. Over the course of his long career, he explored producing his inventive forms in different media, such as ceramics and sculpture. The exhibition examines aspects of his career that are not as well known by retracing the chronology of Chagall’s quests, investigations, and discoveries, including the influences on his work from the Mexican, Hopi, and Zuni cultures. Chagall: Beyond Color is organized chronologically by work produced during specific periods of his life, including work with ceramics, sculpture, and collages during the second half of his career, as well as his collaborations with numerous theater and ballet companies, including commissions with the Russian Jewish Theater and the Paris Opera House, and for the ballets Aleko and The Firebird. His use of volume, space, and movement is evident throughout the exhibition.

“As we assembled this exhibition, we were surprised to discover several works by Chagall that reference the kachina dolls of Hopi culture and Mexican pre-Columbian pottery,” said Olivier Meslay, the DMA’s Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and curator of Chagall: Beyond Color. “These works contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the impact on Chagall’s artistic trajectory of the time that he spent in Mexico City while working on the designs for Aleko.”

Born in the small Russian town of Vitebsk on July 7, 1887, Chagall began his artistic training with the Russian painter and costume designer Léon Bakst in St. Petersburg. From 1908, he drew upon a variety of sources, including his Russian-Jewish heritage and the stylistic innovations of cubism, surrealism, and other avant-garde art movements. Chagall never officially joined one of the artistic schools, choosing instead to combine vivid fields of color and surreal imagery in his own expressive manner to introduce his world of lovers, dreams, and religion.

Located at the end of the exhibition is an educational reading room with literature on Marc Chagall’s career and life. The Museum will celebrate Chagall: Beyond Color and Mark Chagall during a February 15 “Late Night” event, with talks, tours, films, performances, and more.  Olivier Meslay and Rabbi David Stern, Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, will discuss the relationship between art and religion in Marc Chagall’s work during an April 15 Exhibition Lecture, and on May 15 Arts & Letters Live will present a special event, Characters in Color: A Serenade to Chagall, featuring performances inspired by Chagall: Beyond Color. Additional programs, including lectures and gallery talks, will be scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition. For dates and details, visit DMA.org. 

DMA Friends will be able to earn the Chagall: Beyond Color Special Exhibition Badge when they visit the exhibition between February 17 and May 26. DMA Friends, which launched on January 21, is the first-of-its-kind, no-cost membership program that allows participants to discover new and fun activities at the DMA.

Chagall: Beyond Color requires a special exhibition ticket of $16 for adults with discounts for students, military personnel, and seniors; DMA Partners and children 11 and under are free.

Chagall: Beyond Color is co-organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Musée La Piscine de Roubaix. The curator of the Dallas presentation is Olivier Meslay, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and The Barbara Thomas Lemmon Curator of European Art. A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition. The exhibition in Dallas is presented by BBVA Compass. Air transportation provided by American Airlines.