Lingering with Marc Chagall’s Father

I went to the Louvre once.  It was 1987.  I was 23.  I was on a belated honeymoon trip.  I ate french fries on the patio while playing Crazy Eights, mistakenly sat on a Louis the XIV chair and set off the alarm, and lined up to see the Mona Lisa only to bail on the lineup and take pictures of people looking at the Mona Lisa instead.

I’m not very good in museums.  I become super self-conscious in crowds, and in art galleries I break into a sweat under the pressure of liking what I’m seeing, or the expectation of my having an intelligent opinion because, apparently, it is not enough to like a painting, to be intrigued or moved by it:  you have to know why and be able to tell your mates…and anyone else in earshot…if you talk loud enough.

A couple weeks ago, L & I were in Montreal and took in the Chagall exhibit at the Musee Des Beaux Arts.  It was near the end of the exhibit’s run and the place was packed.  People moved from room to room like sheep and I was a sweaty mess of nerves within a few minutes but I discovered something important:  I enjoy seeing paintings when I can get up close…really up close.  Like sitting in the Louis the XIV chair kind of close.

I found a painting that didn’t have a crowd gathered around it…a portrait Chagall had done of his father (he did a few, I think).  With my nose a few inches away from it, I took my time looking at the canvas without the feeling of 50 pairs of eyes drilling into my back.

I saw ridges– the pressure exerted, all the places the painter decided to stop moving the brush, the exact moments his brain signaled the muscles in his arm, wrist, and fingers to ease up or bear down or change direction.  Up close, the thing was a study in intention, force, and trust. Micro movements and decisions made on some sub-existent level.  The place where what is invited and what actually appears seem to work it out for the greater good, all caught in oil and pigment a few inches from my nose.  Looking at it like this allowed me to relate to the humanity of the painting, and of the painter.  I appreciated how he painted those he loved, and that he painted himself, too.

I lasted longer than I thought in the gallery, but will confess we did spend a good portion of time in the Kids Chagall Colour Zone playing with puppets.  Well, one puppet.  A donkey puppet.  I loved that puppet.