Marc Chagall. Inside the Image

A joint exhibition project by the Cultural Foundation “RD in Barcelona” and BUAT Gallery

From 2 October, the Cultural Foundation “RD in Barcelona” and BUAT Gallery invite you to visit Marc Chagall. Inside the Image, an exhibition of lithographs by Marc Chagall.

The exhibition is centred on a group of graphic works from the BUAT Gallery collection. Its intimate format is intentional: rather than retelling the artist’s biography or attempting to cover the full scope of his legacy, the exhibition invites visitors to focus closely on the works themselves — on how Chagall constructs an image and why such different subjects can still feel like parts of one coherent artistic world.

Biblical scenes, Paris, the circus, lovers, people and animals appear side by side throughout the exhibition. These motifs constantly flow into one another. A rooster or a horse may become as important to the composition as the human figure. The Eiffel Tower remains immediately recognisable, yet the city around it no longer follows the logic of real topography. A figure from an ancient text can exist with the same immediacy as a person from Chagall’s own time.

Chagall lived between different cities, languages and cultural environments. In his art, these experiences do not form a sequence of isolated periods. Vitebsk continues to be present in works created during his Paris years; Jewish tradition coexists with French artistic culture; biblical subjects appear alongside the circus, urban imagery and personal memories.

What Chagall saw was almost always transformed by memory. Familiar relationships between objects can therefore shift with ease: scale changes, space loses its stability, and figures or objects belonging to different times and places appear together. Within Chagall’s work, this does not feel like a separate surreal or fantastical device. It is simply the way the image itself is constructed.

Biblical imagery

Biblical themes occupy an important place within the works presented in the exhibition. Chagall returned to them over many years, and his interest extended far beyond the illustration of sacred texts. At the centre remained the human being — fear, grief, hope and solitude.

In Pleurs de Jérémie (La Bible), 1956, the story of the prophet is experienced above all through the emotional state of the figure. An ancient narrative becomes an immediate human experience. This is why Chagall’s biblical works can exist so naturally beside images without an explicitly religious subject. Sacred history and personal experience remain closely connected in his art.

Paris

Paris enters Chagall’s work differently, yet follows the same internal logic. Recognisable places and architectural landmarks do not transform the image into a conventional cityscape. The Eiffel Tower, buildings, people, animals and colour all exist within a single visual world in which memory is as important as direct observation.

The circus

The circus holds a distinctive place in Chagall’s art and became one of his recurring motifs. The arena itself implies a suspension of ordinary rules: a person rises into the air, an animal becomes a performer, celebration exists alongside anxiety.

For Chagall, this freedom feels entirely natural. The circus does not require him to invent another reality — it almost perfectly coincides with the world he was already creating on paper and canvas.

Animals and figures

Animals in Chagall’s works are rarely decorative background elements. A rooster, horse, goat or bird can appear beside a human figure as an independent presence. At times they evoke memories of everyday life; at others they acquire a more complex meaning.

Chagall does not reduce each animal to a fixed symbol. Its significance changes from work to work and depends on the figures, forms and emotions surrounding it.

Printmaking and the artist’s book

An important part of the exhibition is dedicated to printmaking and the artist’s book. Chagall worked with both throughout several decades.

In printed works, familiar motifs acquire new qualities: line and colour operate differently, while the image enters into a dialogue with text, page format and sequence. This practice was deeply connected to twentieth-century French artistic culture and to the work of publishers, printers and specialised workshops.

The Cultural Foundation “RD in Barcelona” has previously explored Marc Chagall’s work as part of its Art in Exile series. This new exhibition continues that conversation from a different perspective.

Biography remains an essential context, but here the works themselves become the primary source. They reveal how the experience of different places, languages and cultures could be transformed and given a new form within Chagall’s art.

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Cultural Foundation “RD in Barcelona”

The Cultural Foundation “RD in Barcelona” is a private charitable foundation that develops educational and cultural projects for a broad audience.

Its activities include an art studio and film club, exhibition space, lecture programme, foreign-language centre and library. The Foundation also organises concerts, many of them developed in collaboration with leading music institutions in Spain and Russia, as well as numerous exhibition and educational projects.

Since 2019, the Foundation has hosted a representative office of St Petersburg State University, one of Russia’s leading universities and an institution with a 300-year history.

The Foundation’s programmes introduce audiences to different aspects of Russian and international culture while creating opportunities for dialogue and cooperation between countries in the fields of art, culture and education..

Visit the exhibition

Monday–Friday: 16:30–20:30
Address: Carrer de Josep Anselm Clavé, 31, 08002 Barcelona

Free admission.

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