The Greeting 1922 - 1923

Marc Chagall made this print, The Greeting, with etching, and the absence of color is striking. I find myself thinking about the marks he made to create this world. The heavy lines next to the sketchy ones give everything such a strong presence. Like, look at that dark, solid rectangle floating above the two figures. It feels like it’s there to balance the scene. But everything is also kind of falling apart. Those stairs leading nowhere. Is that really a church? Chagall has such a sense of humor, like Philip Guston, maybe. They share this way of poking fun at the world but also filling it with such heavy emotion. This print isn’t just about seeing, it’s about feeling the space between things, the untold stories, the wobbly beauty of it all.