Chagall's “Blue Circus”
“For me, a circus is a magic show that appears and disappears like a world. A circus is disturbing. It is profound.”
“I can still see in Vitebsk, my hometown, in a poor street with only three or four spectators, a man
performing with a little boy and a little girl. Clowns, bareback riders and acrobats have made
themselves at home in my visions. Why? Why am I so touched by their makeup and their grimaces?
With them I can move toward new horizons. Lured by their colours and makeup, I dream of
painting new psychic distortions. Alas, in my lifetime I have seen a grotesque circus: a man [Hitler]
roared to terrify the world.”
“A revolution that does not lead to its ideal is, perhaps, a circus too.”
“I wish I could hide all these troubling thoughts and feelings in the opulent tail of a circus horse
and run after it, like a clown, begging for mercy, begging to chase the sadness from the world.”
— Marc Chagall, 1966
