October 08, 2008

Litvak to explore beauty in the art of Marc Chagall

The Clark University History Department will present "Death and the Maydl: Jewish Femininity and the Denial of Beauty in the Art of Marc Chagall," a talk by Olga Litvak, associate professor of history and the first incumbent of the Michael and Lisa Leffell Chair in Modern Jewish History at Clark. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, October 23, in Tilton Hall, 2nd floor of the Higgins University Center, 950 Main St., Worcester.

Litvak will explore perceptions of beauty in the work of acclaimed Belorussian Jewish artist Marc Chagall. Chagall’s work frequently featured images of Jewish women—particularly his first wife Bella—that allude to his romance with Jewish Eastern Europe. Professor Litvak raises the question, "Why does Chagall's beloved always look like a corpse?"

Despite their radical intimations of mortality, no criticism has ever attached to Chagall's ostensibly sacrosanct treatments of the Jewish female form. Litvak proposes to look at his images of Bella within the context of the avant-garde poetics of deformation and to assess the provocative role they played in the construction of the artist's personal Jewish mythology.

Litvak joined the Clark faculty this fall. She previously served as director of the Center for Jewish Studies at University at Albany, State University of New York. She has written and lectured on a wide range of subjects related to the study of Russian Jewry, including urban violence, literary and artistic life, war, revolution and migration. The editor of the Painting and Sculpture section of the landmark YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (Yale, 2008), Litvak has also been pursuing the study of Jewish participation in the making of modern Russian visual culture.

This event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow. For more information, contact 508-793-7288.