Peace Window, Marc Chagall 1964
This week we learned about the life and career of the great artist Marc Chagall. Marc Chagall was born in Belarus on July 7, 1887. Chagall was the oldest of nine children from a loving Jewish family. His childhood was a happy one and many images from that period of his life appear throughout his work. He was influenced by movements such as Cubism, Fauvism and Surrealism. His trademarks are strong bright colors, quirky motifs, things turned upside down, people floating though air and animals with human faces.
His work is rich in the imagery of the folklore of his native Russia and Jewish life and often takes on the appearance of fantasy. Many of his works were inspired by his dreams. Chagall died in 1985.
This week, students learned about the Stained glass process – where glass is coloured by adding metallic salts when it is made. For example, copper metals gives dark red glass, silver nitrate gives ranges of red and yellow colours to the glass, cobalt turns glass blue and iron oxide turns glass to a blue-green colour. The coloured glass is made into stained glass windows by arranging small pieces of glass to form patterns or pictures from the cartoon sketch. The glass is held together by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame.
Marc Chagall did not start creating stained glass windows until he was 70 and he created many different windows for churches, cathedrals, the art institute of Chicago and even one for the Rockefeller’s. We studied the Peace Window that he created for the United Nations and created our own variation of the dove of peace.
For this week’s project, Art in Action students sketched out the stained glass sections within the dove and coloured them in using chalk pastels and then outlining with Prussian blue oil pastel.
Students then used violet and blue liquid watercolours to paint the background of the window and finished off the outside of the window with Prussian blue acrylic paint.
We encouraged students to remember the quote from Chagall, “If I create from the heart almost everything works out.” Well done students! Take a look at these colourful stunning woks of art…
