High Life

HIGH LIFE 43 在二十世纪上半叶经历了前所未有的屠杀和破坏后，夏加尔究竟是如何鼓起 勇气、决心和力量，创造出别树一帜的艺术风格的？他的画作将天真的情感和宗 教象征，以有如稚童漂浮在弗洛伊德式梦境中的烂漫方式展现。夏加尔的艺术是 被动的逃避，亦是主动的抵抗，既现代也保守，感情至深却充满理性。在画作视 觉享受的背后，隐藏着不足为外人道的苦难和信念，而正因如此，夏加尔对现实 世界的认知和他对理想世界的描绘之间，存在着如此巨大的反差。 早年在圣彼得堡和巴黎学习艺术时，夏加尔不过是来自白俄罗斯穷乡僻壤的 土包子，却丝毫没有隐藏自己的身世，而是落落大方地示人。他的父亲生性虔 诚且勤劳，曾是鲱鱼搬运工，以苦活赚取的微薄薪水养活一家人。老夏加尔当 然不是画家，却不时在儿子的画中化身为鱼形图案。身处沙皇、布尔什维克和纳 粹统治下，固然没有多少个人自由可言，但他却与妻子在画中——也只能是在画 中——翱翔于天际，远离二十世纪的历史洪流。夏加尔年纪愈大，作品愈是活 泼。他在于1985 年在法国南部小镇旺斯圣保罗逝世时，现代主义已完成其生命 周期，而远在白俄罗斯的老家，亦已进入米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫的开放政策和经 济改革时期。二十世纪的沧桑陵谷，令人不胜唏嘘。 It is all themore astonishing that, havingwitnessed the unprecedentedhorror and destruction of the 20th century, Chagall would have the courage, resolve and strength to create his idiosyncratic style of art, fusing innocent sentiments and religious symbolism into a Freudian dream as pristine as a child. His art is passive escapism and active resistance simultaneously, modern and conservative at once, emotional yet rational. Behind the façade of visual pleasure is both unimaginable suffering and unwavering hope, hence the stark contrast between Chagall’s perception of the real world and his depiction of the ideal world. During his early days in Saint Petersburg and Paris, he was but a country bumpkin from a Belarusian backwater, but rather than concealing his roots, he exuded them. His pious and hardworking father, a porter of herring barrels, would be remembered in the form of the fish motif. When there was little freedom to speak of under Tsarist, Bolshevik and Nazi rule, he and his wife could surf above the clouds in painting – but only in painting – far away from the torrents of time. The older he grew, the more vibrant his paintings. By the time of his passing in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in 1985, modernismhad run its course and his homeland had entered the era of Glasnost and Perestroika under Mikhail Gorbachev.