Chil­dren’s

I Am Marc Chagall

Bimbe Land­mann, author and illus.
  • Review
By – July 9, 2012

Inspired by Chagall’s biog­ra­phy, My Life, Land­mann has merged the sto­ry of the artist’s life and the devel­op­ment of his artis­tic style into this visu­al­ly dra­mat­ic children’s book. 

The dia­logue cap­tures the dream-like qual­i­ty of the artist’s work and the illus­tra­tions recre­ate and reflect Chagall’s art through col­oration and medi­um. Her use of tex­tures demon­strates the feel of Chagall’s abstract and sur­re­al­is­tic view of the world. 

The text tack­les sev­er­al dif­fi­cult top­ics, rang­ing from self-devel­op­ment, self-iden­ti­ty, the cre­ative process and the abil­i­ty to ver­bal­ize per­son­al desires with­in a fam­i­ly struc­ture. In a com­pressed time­frame, Chagall’s life is inte­grat­ed into the his­tor­i­cal events of the cen­tu­ry. Land­mann uses the his­tor­i­cal ref­er­ences to estab­lish Chagall’s con­cept that the real world is with­in ourselves. 

Juda­ic ele­ments run through the sto­ry. Cha­gall the boy goes to Hebrew school and stud­ies Torah while search­ing for his iden­ti­ty. The events of rev­o­lu­tion, war, hard­ship and escape, and their impact on Jews, are woven into the text. 

A time­line pro­vides an accu­rate his­to­ry of the artist’s life and a cor­re­la­tion to his paint­ings. Ages 8 and up.

Chris­tine Maas­dam holds a Mas­ters in Human­i­ties, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in Muse­um Stud­ies and Cul­tur­al Prop­er­ty Pro­tec­tion. She is cur­rent­ly com­plet­ing her M.L.I.S. Her inter­ests are phi­los­o­phy and the impact of art and tech­nol­o­gy on culture.

Discussion Questions