Paysage violet c. 1980

Marc Chagall has conjured a violet dreamscape with oil paint, a world seen through a veil of memory and imagination. I can almost feel the push and pull of his brush as he built up this scene, layer upon layer, scraping back here, adding there, a constant conversation between the violet ground and the figures emerging from it. I imagine him, wrestling with the canvas, trying to pin down something as fleeting as a feeling, as intangible as love. The thick impasto in the flowers suggests a riot of emotions, while the thin washes in the background create a sense of infinite space. Look at that embrace! He makes it feel both tender and eternal. Chagall, like other painters, reminds us that painting is an act of translation, of taking the world we see and turning it into something new, something deeply felt. Painting is a journey without a map, a constant search for meaning.