Over the Moon: The True Colors of Marc Chagall in Eygens

English-Language Lecture by Chantal Ringuet. Sponsored by the Committee for Yiddish, UJA Federation, and Toronto Workmen's Circle. Recorded live on Zoom, June 9, 2020, from Toronto and Montreal, Canada.

In his original autobiography Eygens (1925), Marc Chagall recalls his formative years in Vitebsk, his native shtetl, all the way to his journey in Paris. In this lecture, Chantal Ringuet will discuss how Chagall’s original text, while reflecting the true colors of the artist, illustrates a Yiddish paradise. This world of yesterday, that of childhood memories in Eastern Europe, is conveyed in an oneiric style that embodies numerous traditional sceneries. The French translation of Eygens, launched in 1931 – from which derive the English, Russian and Hebrew translations – raises specific issues pertaining to the artist’s assimilation to the Western art.