News & Events in Belarus

Vitebsk to mark 125th birthday of Marc Chagall

VITEBSK  (BelTA) – Celebrations of the 125th anniversary of Marc Chagall will start in Vitebsk in April. The organizing committee of the festival has approved the relevant action plan, BelTA learnt from Director of the Marc Chagall Museum Lyudmila Khmelnitskaya.

The plan of celebrations will include the 22nd Chagall Readings and the marking of Chagall’s birthday. Chagall Readings that are to take place on 9-10 June will be dedicated to the history of Vitebsk Art College of 1918-1923 opened thanks to the then commissioner of arts of Vitebsk Province Marc Chagall. Applications to participate in the readings have already been received by arts critics from Belarus, Russia, Latvia, France, and Germany.

Chagall’s birthday will be marked on 7-8 July. On 6 July the Art Museum of Vitebsk will house a one-painting exhibition. it will be Chagall’s portrait by Yehuda Pen, Mac Chagall’s first teacher, from the archives of the National Art Museum. The highlight of the celebrations will be an event titled as At Marc and Bella’s on Pokrovskaya Street on 7 July. The program will include theatrical and circus performances, a solemn wreath-laying ceremony, the exhibition and sale of exclusive souvenirs, and literary-musical program in the courtyard of the museum.

The outdoor event "Vitebsk is the city artists” will take place the next day in the Vitebsk downtown.

In early April the Vitebsk regional methodical center of folk art will hold the fourth national exhibition of naive art Insita-2012 in Art Center Marc Chagall. The exhibition will include works of artists in honor of Marc Chagall.

Other festive events include an international students’ plein air event and another plein air by Vitebsk branch of the Belarusian union of artists. The year will conclude with the exhibition “Teacher and Student” in Vitebsk Art Museum which will showcase the works of Yehuda Pen, Marc Chagall’s teacher, and the artist himself. However, which Chagall’s work will be on display is not known yet: negotiations are still underway with the museums-owners of the works.

Not only Vitebsk will celebrate 125th anniversary of Chagall. An exhibition will be arranged at the Tretyakov Gallery, a scientific conference will be held in the Hermitage.

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