Autour du Coq Rouge (Around the Red Rooster), painted in 1982 by a ninety-five year old Marc Chagall (1887-1985), the most famous Jewish artist of the twentieth century, puzzles us with its mysterious loveliness and grace. The Chagall bursts upon us in a passionate torrent, scintillating our visual sensibilities with pinks, hot violets and lush greens that are only partially soothed by the flickering blues of distant skies. The absurdly shaped animals in the center are guarded by three hesitant figures on the left and a gigantic figure with a rooster on the right. Behind him are a mother and child who seem to levitate above the horizon. The prone youth in the foreground feeding a little white goat serves as a horizontal balance to the unusual and evocative Provencal landscape above.

Autour du Coq Rouge (1982) oil on canvas (36x26) by Marc Chagall
Courtesy of Sotheby's Tel Aviv

The Chagall painting is the star of the one hundred and one objects to be auctioned at Sotheby's Tel Aviv on Sunday, April 27, 2003. This exhibition of paintings is an informative survey of Jewish and Israeli Art of the twentieth century, exploring the diversity of Israeli art works from the nineteen-twenties to the turn of the millennium.

The Student (1929) oil on canvas (23 x 19) by Mane-Katz
Courtesy of Sotheby's Tel Aviv

Mane-Katz (1894-1962) represents the influence of the School of Paris on much of early twentieth century Jewish art. Paris, from 1910 until 1940, was home to many foreign born artists, including numerous Jews, and was the undisputed capital of world art. School of Paris painting was characterized by the less radical innovations of early modernism. Born in Kremenchug, Ukraine, Katz emigrated to Paris in 1921 and worked there the majority of his life. The influence of early friendships with Soutine and Chagall combined with his religious background to drive his early obsession with Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement. Many of his paintings include beggars, fiddlers, Hasidic rabbis and talmudic students. Represented here is The Student (1929), with its broad rapid brushwork typical of his expressionistic paintings that exposes the sensitive character of the disheveled yeshiva student. Throughout his life he also produced lively landscapes and still lifes, nevertheless he remained devoted to images of Jewish religious life both from the past and in contemporary Israel, frequently obtaining surprising insights by means of his unconventional, modernist and non-traditional point of view