Mid-Term: White Crucifixion

During February of 2012, I was required by my professor to attend a tour at the Chicago Art Institute. While I'd been to the Art Institute a number of times before, this was to be a guided tour, by our professor, through the modern European art into the contemporary, specifically looking at the development of the craft, composition, and concepts of pieces throughout the years. During this tour, we were required to pick one piece of art as the masterpiece of the Institute, and explain this critique.

One of the first things we had to do was prove that we were actually there with our professor:

The piece that I found most impressive, and the piece that I think stands as the masterpiece of the Institute, is Chagall's White Crucifixion. This is an oil painting on canvas, done in 1938. The time is significant in that it the piece speaks to the reality of Jewish oppression that was taking place in Europe at this time.

The piece is composed rather simply, with not much detail in the figures or objects that exist on the canvas. Chagall uses the crucifixion to immediately draw attention of the viewer. The crucifixion is an extremely recognizable icon that has tremendous meaning, and by using it he draws the viewers' attention and creates an immediate conceptual idea. By doing this, Chagall is able to boldly proclaim a message through this painting.

Not much color is used in this piece, nor does this piece demonstrate great depth or detail. The few changes in color values are dramatic; grey is the only gradient in this image. One can assume that the drastic value differences were chosen by the artist to draw attention to those areas. There are two light-sources: one that is rendered to come from above the painting, as well as a small light source below the feet of Jesus. These light sources do not create shadows, but rather emphasize those immediate objects.

White Crucifixion is composed in the ways of an iconography rather than a painting intended to render a perfect realism. The overall image is a story, composed of smaller images that have a specific meaning. And when all these small stories are put together into a large painting, an overarching story is told. Like other artists such as John August Swanson, Chagall is interested in the narrative much more than in the realism of the image. And it is the concept that makes this piece the best in the Institute.

Much of Chagall's work surrounds the events of World War II and the treatment of Jews at this time. Perhaps this influenced his decision to emphasize the Jewish lineage of Jesus. The image presents a Jewish Jesus, along with the biblical patriarchs and matriarch, at the time of crucifixion. Surrounding the crucifixion are other symbols of oppression and martyrdom that are happening at the time this painting was made.

While this painting was made as the Holocaust was starting, Chagall would have also been knowledgeable of the larger theological implications of a Jewish Jesus image. Soon after the death of Jesus, as the Gospels were being written, there came a shift in the recognition of Jesus as the Messianic Figure from the line of David. As evident in the letters of Paul, the desire was to take the message of Jesus to the Gentiles, and in doing so, the image of Jesus was eventually removed from his Jewish roots. The Christological statement that this painting makes is astounding as it attempts to reach back in time to re-capture an understanding of faith that has been lost through the generations.

White Crucifixion is the most important piece in the Chicago Art Institute because it has a message that transcends through the centuries that looks at how we understand one of the most important individuals of the Abrahamic tradition.