The Stag and the Vine 1927 - 1930

Marc Chagall made this etching, The Stag and the Vine, with ink and a metal plate. It's this crazy forest scene, all done in scratchy lines, and the stag is kind of floating up at the top, like a dream. I wonder what Chagall was thinking as he worked? Maybe he was just letting his mind wander, drawing whatever came to him. The lines are so loose and free, like he wasn't trying to control anything, just letting the image emerge. And that stag, up there in the sky, it's so weird and unexpected. It's like he’s saying, "Hey, art doesn't have to make sense. It can just be whatever you want it to be." The way he puts things together just feels so intuitive, like he's following some inner logic that only he understands. It makes you realize that artists are always talking to each other across time, remixing ideas, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.