Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968 | Cubist, Dadaist, Fauvist and Surrealist painter

Marcel Duchamp the painter and mixed media artist, was associated with Cubism, Dadaism, Fauvism and Surrealism, though he avoided any alliances. Duchamp’s work is characterized by its humor, the variety and unconventionality of its media, and its incessant probing of the boundaries of art. His legacy includes the insight that art can be about ideas instead of worldly things, a revolutionary notion that would resonate with later generations of artists.
Marcel Duchamp was a french artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art. He advised modern art collectors, such as Peggy Guggenheim and other prominent figures, thereby helping to shape the tastes of Western art during this period.
Duchamp challenged conventional thought about artistic processes and art marketing, not so much by writing, but through subversive actions such as dubbing a urinal art and naming it Fountain. He produced relatively few artworks, while moving quickly through the avant-garde circles of his time. The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.

Marc Chagall | Paris through my window | 1913

After Marc Chagall moved to Paris from Russia in 1910, his paintings quickly came to reflect the latest avant-garde styles. In Paris Through the Window, Chagall’s debt to the Orphic Cubism of his colleague Robert Delaunay is clear in the semitransparent overlapping planes of vivid color in the sky above the city. The Eiffel Tower, which appears in the cityscape, was also a frequent subject in Delaunay’s work. For both artists it served as a metaphor for Paris and perhaps modernity itself.

Marc Chagall 1887-1985 | Le Cirque, Paris 1967

Marc Chagall: "For me a circus is a magic show that appears and disappears like a world.
A circus is disturbing. It is profound These clowns, bareback riders and acrobats have themselves at home in my visions.
Why? Why am I so touched by their make-up and their grimaces? With them I can move toward new horizons. Lured by their colors and make-up, I can dream of painting new psychic distortions. It is a magic word, circus, a timeless dancing game where tears and smiles, the play of arms and legs take the form of a great art!

Marc Chagall 1887-1985 | Le vetrate

Famose in tutto il mondo, le magnifiche fiabesche vetrate policrome, della misura di metri 4 per 2,8 circa, sono state realizzate dal grande artista in due anni di lavoro, tra il 1960-1961. La prima vetrata fu montata nel 1967, mentre le ultime vennero installate nel 1985, lo stesso anno in cui Chagall morì all'età di 98 anni. Si trovano nella sinagoga del centro medico universitario Hadassah di Gerusalemme e nell'atrio aperto al pubblico del Palazzo delle Nazioni Unite ONU a New York, NY, Stati Uniti d'America.
Ogni vetrata, dominata da un colore diverso, è un microcosmo del caratteristico e fantastico mondo di Chagall, dove, tra realtà e immaginazione, egli rappresenta il suo profondo senso di identificazione con la storia e la cultura del popolo ebraico e, ispirato dalle sacre scritture, ritrae, tra simboli e fantasiose figure di fiori e animali, i dodici figli di Giacobbe e le dodici tribù di Israele. Lo speciale processo di applicazione del colore utilizzato dall'artista, ha permesso l'utilizzo di tre colori differenti in ogni lastra senza richiedere la separazione in piombo.

Henri Matisse 1869-1954 | Drawings | Fauve style

Henri Matisse was a french artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp 1887-1968, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve wild beast, by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

Marc Chagall 1887-1985 | Botton

Henri Matisse 1869-1954 | Fauve style

Henri Émile Benoît Matisse è uno dei più noti artisti del ventesimo secolo, conosciuto principalmente per essere l'esponente di maggior spicco della corrente artistica dei Fauves. La sua prima esposizione avvenne nel 1904, senza grande successo. Nel 1905 si trasferì nel sud della Francia, per lavorare con André Derain; esperienza durante la quale si accentuò la sua tendenza ad enfatizzare fortemente il colore. I dipinti di questo periodo sono caratterizzati da forme appiattite e linee controllate, con l'espressione che domina sui dettagli. La maggior parte delle sue opere più celebri vennero dipinte tra il 1906 e il 1917, quando era parte attiva del grande insieme di artisti che lavoravano a Montparnasse; sebbene egli non vi entrasse appieno, con le sue sembianze conservatrici e i suoi costumi borghesi restrittivi. Matisse ebbe un lungo rapporto col collezionista d'arte russo Sergei Shchukin. Proprio per Shchukin realizzò La danza, uno dei suoi capolavori.