Artuality: White Crucifixion by Chagall

I knew it was at the Art Institute of Chicago. Walking in, I asked the nearest museum worker, "Where are Chagall's works?" She handed me a map then pointed down the hall. I approached the room as if walking toward the dead. Before turning the corner, I paused.

I'd been introduced to White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall a year or so earlier, but that had been a mere photo. Already it had become an important piece in my life and before stepping into the room that housed the original, I wondered, would I be disappointed? 

Then it was in front of me. 

No. I was not disappointed. I could not be disappointed.

I sat on the bench in front of the work and studied it, an hour, two hours, three hours. My friends wandered through, then said it was time to go. I hadn't visited another painting, another sculpture, another artifact.

And I was not disappointed.

This piece is the epitome of God's mercy and human evil. Around the edges, Chagall depicts Kristallnacht, a night when Nazi's burned the homes and stores of Jews. They attacked and stole and smashed. Synagogues were destroyed, homes ransacked. The Nazi's had begun erasing the Jews.

In the center hangs Jesus, dying, suffering. Chagall emphasizes the Jewishness of this Jesus who died to forgive our sins.

I know that at once I am the Jew and I am the Nazi in this painting. I am the oppressed waiting the final victory, and I am the oppressor at whose hand others suffer. It is for me Jesus died, and it is because of me Jesus died.

This painting holds the destruction of man and the recreation of God. And I have a choice, to which will I contribute, will I work?

The mercy of God overwhelms me. How could he forgive even this? How could he forgive even me? How could he forgive even humanity?

In the center of this, I know, Christ's love knows no boundaries.

You can find other Artuality festival posts here. This month's theme is paintings.