White Crucifix


White Crucifix, a painting by Mark Chagall may spark different feelings in different people and may even bring about some conflict. This piece is full of history and emotion. When I first viewed it, I did not fully understand the meaning of all the horrific scenes in the background in relation the crucified Christ in the dead center of the picture.

I did a little research and found out that this painting was in response to the series of events known as the kristallnaucht, when Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were destroyed, and countless Jews were taken to concentration Camps. Those pictures in the background of White Crucifix display the suffering that many of Jews were facing, and the crucified Jesus can convey His suffering with His people. Chagall supposedly made this to raise awareness of Hitler’s army and the way he was treating human beings.

I am nowhere near an expert on art or history, and most of this information is just research that I found. I’m learning that knowledge adds a certain factor to the way we view art and can change everything completely: kind of like the good reader/bad reader thing. In the same way I thing that art adds a certain factor to knowledge that we can’t get from anywhere else. This picture shows true events and reveals knowledge using picture and symbolism. Art has impact. Four of Chagall’s paintings are classified as ‘Degenerate Art’ and were classified by the Nazi as unacceptable art. Why would the Nazi’s feel obligate to destroy or remove certain art, if it did not have impact?