In the USA as a refugee 1941-7, then returned to France, settling in 1950 at Vence.

During this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his idea of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. The collection, which focuses on the refugee experience, continues to raise funds and awareness for the IRC’s work today. In 1914, before the outbreak of World War I, Chagall held a one-man show in Berlin, exhibiting work dominated by Jewish images and personages. With his mother's support, and despite his father's disapproval, Chagall pursued his interest in art, going to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study art with Leon Bakst. He was also a refugee.

Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, who lived in Paris in the 1930s, escaped France after the Nazi occupation and immigrated to the US in 1940 after a period in London.

In 1967, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor just five months before his death. Artist Marc Chagall, a pioneer of modernism celebrated as “the quintessential Jewish artist of the 20th century,” is known for his poetic, colorful paintings. His voice was not heard. They bring hard work, potential and contributions. The IRC was founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, himself a refugee, who lived in New York at the time. Sources: The Pedagogic Center, The Department for Jewish Zionist Education, The Jewish Agency for Israel, (c) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, Director: Dr. Motti Friedman, Webmaster: Esther Carciente, Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library, The Pedagogic Center, The Department for Jewish Zionist Education, The Jewish Agency for Israel, © 1998 - 2020 American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. ©2020 Hyperallergic Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Strong and often bright colors portray the world with a dreamlike, non-realistic simplicity, and the fusion of fantasy, religion, and nostalgia infuses his work with a joyous quality.

Tate Galleries and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are collaborating with the IRC on similar initiatives.

Marc Chagall, (born July 7, 1887, Vitebsk, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in Belarus]—died March 28, 1985, Saint-Paul, Alpes-Maritimes, France), Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker, and designer who composed his images based on emotional and poetic associations, rather than on rules of pictorial logic. "When Matisse dies," Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, "Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is".
In 1996, he was posthumously awarded Israel’s “Righteous Among Nations” medal, the first American to be so recognized.


Unfortunately, within a year of the launch of Fry’s operation, the Vichy government clamped down on his efforts. “I’m very moved by [the Met’s] gesture towards refugees,” she continued. “The Met is committed to welcoming refugees and celebrating their past and present accomplishments and contributions,” museum director Max Hollein said in a statement. Since Monday, visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City have been encountering an unusual sight at the museum’s Modern and Contemporary Art galleries, finding Marc Chagall’s “The Lovers” (1913-14) hidden behind a large cloth. Marc Chagall was born in 1887 to a poor Jewish family in Russia. His voice was not heard. This gesture is part of a global campaign organized by the humanitarian aid organization the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to highlight the contributions of refugees to their hosting countries. Often, they bring the humanity and optimism embodied by  Marc Chagall, who once said, “Despite all the troubles of our world, in my heart I have never given up on the love in which I was brought up or on man’s hope in love.”. Varian Fry at his office in Marseilles in the spring of 1941. Chagall died on March 28, 1985, in Saint-Paul, France at age 97. same year and had to remain there because of the war. Chagall began to display his artistic talent while studying at a secular Russian school, and despite his father’s disapproval, in 1907 he began studying art with Leon Bakst in St. Petersburg.

Back in New York, Fry tried to alert the world to what would come to be known as the Holocaust. Chagall’s ‘The Lovers’ Covered At The Met In Recognition Of Refugees.

On the evening of June 21, 1941, the Russian artist Marc Chagall and his wife Bella arrived in New York, which they would soon make their new home.