“They said that all people of all nationalities could live in Paris together,” he said. Rummens said, and art critics latched onto this notion. In the first two decades of the 20th century, Paris became a magnet for international artists, Mr.

More From the Special Section: Museums, galleries and auction houses are opening their doors wider than ever to new artists, new concepts and new traditions.A Cultural Correction: After removing all references to Columbus from its collections the Denver Art Museum has embraced a new exhibition on Latin American art.

And the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum is working to engage visitors about the realities of climate change. New and Old : In California, museums are celebrating and embracing Latino and Chicano art and artists.

A Tribute to Black Artists: Four museums across the country are featuring exhibitions this fall that recognize the work of African and African American artists, signaling a change in attitude - and priorities.Bigger and Better : While the Covid-19 pandemic forced museums to close for months, cut staff and reduce expenses, several of them have nevertheless moved forward on ambitious renovations or new buildings.Even in the 1960s, many French critics still regarded him as no more than a “foreign Jew” who should not be able to paint a national monument, said Maurice Rummens, a research assistant at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. When the Vichy government came to power in 1940, Jewish artists could no longer exhibit in Paris. “It was as if I was discovering light, color, freedom, the sun, pleasure in life for the first time,” he said of his early days in Paris.Įven though Chagall immediately became one of the leading modernist painters, he continued to face difficulties in the French capital.

He was trying to leave behind Russia’s discrimination against Jews and the periodic violent pogroms, trading them for the center of the art world. AMSTERDAM - When Marc Chagall received the prestigious commission to paint the ceiling of the Palais Garnier opera house in 1960, the anti-Semitic protests and threats against him were so vicious that he had to be accompanied to the Paris theater by a police escort, recalled Paul Versteeg, a Dutch artist who worked with him.Ĭhagall, born Moishe Segal, was a Belarusian Jew who had fled Vitebsk for Paris a half-century earlier, at age 20.

Paris opera house ceiling chagall