Les fiancés à l’horloge 1966

Editor: Here we have Marc Chagall's "The Fiancés with the Clock," painted in 1966. The thick application of oil paint gives the piece a tactile quality. What do you make of the painting's material presence and its connection to Chagall’s subject matter? Curator: The physicality of the paint is key here. Consider the social context of painting at this time. Post-war, there's a real interrogation of what materials can signify. Chagall using such a dense impasto after the austerity of the war speaks volumes. How do these layered textures inform the themes of love and time? Editor: I see what you mean! The density of the paint mirrors the density of emotions perhaps, but also literally embodies time as each layer dries, hardens, and ages. Does the cityscape backdrop influence your view on the materiality? Curator: Absolutely. Chagall’s recurring motifs of the village connect to his own biography. Examine how the paint is handled differently in the cityscape versus the figures. There’s a roughness in the buildings, but a smoothed, idealized texture on the bride and groom. How does this distinction impact our understanding of "home" as a material reality versus a sentimental idea? Editor: It’s like the figures are escaping the constraints of the material world, idealized by the artistic process itself. It is so interesting to think about the consumption of love through those idyllic pictures versus the daily life in the village. Curator: Precisely. Considering this artwork through a materialist lens invites us to interrogate not just what is represented, but *how* it’s made, and what socio-economic forces underpin those artistic choices. It complicates the sentimentality we often associate with Chagall. Editor: This makes me see past the surface-level romanticism, recognizing it as an artifact of its time, a tangible expression of societal shifts in production, labour and consumption of artistic means. Thanks for opening my eyes!