“Above the City” – Marc Chagall | DKJo! | discussion

During the next meeting of the One Picture Discussion Club (DKJo!), we will take a look at one of Marc Chagall’s most recognizable and poetic works, “Over the City.” It is a unique composition in which the artist combines elements of reality with dreamlike fantasy, lifting a couple in love above the rooftops of his native Vitebsk. Painted in 1914, the painting is one of the most complete expressions of Chagall’s aesthetics of dreams, freedom, and spiritual elation, and at the same time a personal memory of a place to which the artist constantly returned in his work.

During the meeting:

• We will examine the symbolism of the couple floating above the city – we will consider the meaning of the motifs of flight, lightness, and liberation, and how they relate to Chagall’s biography and his relationship with Bella Rosenfeld.
• We will examine the composition and color scheme of the painting, analyzing how the artist creates a world on the borderline between dream and reality by juxtaposing the earthly landscape with the fantastical gesture of levitation.
• We will discuss the significance of Vitebsk – why this town, depicted in characteristic deformation and intense colors, occupied such an important place in Chagall’s work and became the setting for his most personal paintings.
• We will talk about the cultural context of the work – how it combines the tradition of the Jewish shtetl, the Russian avant-garde, and the artist’s unique, poetic visual language.
• We will reflect on the universal message of the painting. Is “Above the Town” just a romantic vision, or is it also a parable about freedom, spiritual transcendence of everyday life, and the power of human emotions?

As always, we invite you to join the discussion and share your interpretations and reflections.sjami.

The meeting will be led by art historian Łukasz Wudarski.