Rainer Metzger

Bieloruský maliar Marc Chagall (1187 – 1985) je často označovaný ako maliar-básnik. Jeho obrazy plné mytológie a mysticky zachytávajú farebné sny a príbehy hlboko zakorenené v jeho ruskožidovskom pôvode. Spomienky a smútok, ktoré vzbudzujú, odkazujú na jeho rodný Vitebsk a na veľké udalosti sprevádzajúce život obyčajných ľudí: narodenie, láska, svadba či smrť. Rozprávajú o svete plnom všedných zázrakov odohrávajúcich sa v spálňach milencov, na vitebských uliciach alebo pod Eiffelovou vežou v Paríži. Vo svete obrátenom hore nohami, v ktorom ľudia a zvieratá s ľahkosťou a dôstojnosťou popierajú fyzikálne zákony a plachtia vzduchom, akoby sa stretávalo nebo s peklom. Sláva, ktorú si Marc Chagall svojimi snovými obrazmi získal, nemá vo svete výtvarného umenia obdobu.

Colourful dreams and tales. Chagall's world full of everyday miracles. The Belarusian painter Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is widely regarded as epitomizing the "painter as poet". The worldwide admiration he commanded remains unparalleled by any artist of the century. Chagall's paintings, steeped in mythology and mysticism, portray colourful dreams and tales that are deeply rooted in his Russian Jewish origins. The memories and yearning they evoke recall his native Vitebsk, and the great events that mark the life of ordinary people: birth, love, marriage and death. They tell of a world full of everyday miracles - in the room of lovers, on the streets of Vitebsk, beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Heaven and earth seem to meet in a topsy-turvy world in which whimsical figures of people and animals float through the air with gravity-defying serenity. Every book in TASCHEN's "Basic Art Series" features: a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist; approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions; and a concise biography.

"This man will either go insane or leave us all far behind," prophesied the great Impressionist Camille Pissarro. The man was Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), a vicar's son born at Groot-Zundert near Breda in Holland, who at that time was struggling t o find buyers for his paintings. Van Gogh did indeed go at least to the brink of insanity. And he has long been recognised as one of the greatest modern artists. Van Gogh, who followed a variety of professions before becoming an artist, was a solita ry, despairing and self-destructive man his whole life long. His truest friend was his brother Theo, who supported him unstintingly throughout and followed him to the grave just six months later. This richly illustrated study by two experts on van G ogh follows the artist from the early gloom-laden paintings in which he captured the misery of peasants and workers in his home parts, through the bright and colourful paintings he did in Paris, to the work of his final years under a southern sun in Arles, where he at last found the light that produced the unmistakable van Gogh style. At Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise, in the feverish burst of creative energy that marked the last two and a half years of his life, he produced the 463 pain tings on which his immortality rests. Van Gogh craved recognition during his lifetime but was denied it till after his self-inflicted death. Today he is universally seen as one of the great forerunners of 20th century painting, and one of the tragic masters of art.

Monografia bohato vybavená obrazovým materiálom sleduje medzníky vývoja celého diela i tragického života tohto významného maliara.