Attempting to palce Chagall in art-historical terms is always difficult as he held a deep mistrust of movements and programs and consciously dissociated himself from currents, schools, or any sort of dogma. This is not to say he was unaware of art history but he freely borrowed where he saw fit, while making sure he was indebted to nobody.

Certainly the influences of his childhood in Vitebsk, Russia, as well as Russian Icons, folk art and especially his Jewishness figure more prominently in his work than movements like Cubism, Expressionism or Surrealism. Lines of influence, however, are always murky and we should not confuse the making of art history with the creation of art.

Chagall had a conception of art as divinely seized rather than cerebrally directed. Nevertheless, it is interesting to quote Chagall, the magician and storyteller, on his painstaking mythodology:

'One must work, keep on working, reflect, and work again. An ideal cannot be attained without immense labour, you have to work for the quality of your creation, for it is the quality that gives meaning to life'.

This exhibition was in association with Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris.