This exhibition is unusual for the Gladys Lux Print Gallery because it comprises only two artists, Marc Chagall and Georges Rouault, both offering uniquely vivid images inspired by powerful emotions and vibrant colors. The modernist styles influencing these artists were Expressionism, Fauvism, Surrealism, Symbolism, and Cubism. The term 'Fauvism' means 'wild-beasts' and was coined to disparage the artists and their artwork. But the name was embraced by the artists and used by them.

The original Fauves were a loosely allied group of French painters including Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, and Georges Rouault, who had been pupils of the Symbolist artist Gustave Moreau. Rouault admired Moreau's emphasis on personal expression. He also was inspired by the works of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Paul Cézanne. Fauves used intense color to depict light and space, and redefined pure color and form as a means of communicating the artist's emotional state. 

Marc Chagall did not consider himself a member of any artists’ group, though he absorbed ideas from Fauvism and Cubism. These styles enlivened his work with colors and shapes, while expressionist drama infused his art with meaning and emotions. He toyed with abstraction and surrealism but held onto a faith in the power of figurative art. Colors were an essential part of Chagall’s images, bringing the forms to life. Chagall’s colors did not try to replicate nature; instead, they were to evoke emotions, he could create a strong impression of motion and eye-catching imaginative images with only a few colors. His style is both entirely his own and a rich fusion of Modern art disciplines.

The All Chagall and Rouault exhibition may be seen in the second floor Print Gallery at the Lux Center from September 7, 2023 to January 9, 2024. The exhibition was curated by Susan Soriente, Curator of the Gladys Lux Print Collection.