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culture

the northern transept must be viewed looking
upward. Observing these windows, especially
the blue ones, one cannot help thinking of an
allegorical link with another window created
by Chagall – a “Peace Window”, a symbolic
memorial to the second Secretary-General of
the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, and his
colleagues who gave their lives for high ideals.
Chagall was the artist chosen to create this
memorial for the United Nations. The window
depicts life, peace and tranquillity, and Chagall
added his handwritten dedication. This window
is perhaps the one best known to the diplomatic
The results could be seen at his Foundation community around the world.
– his appreciation of Russian/Soviet arts and the
understanding of the Russian love for art. His Admittedly, the Chagall Court in Martigny is
endeavours allowed the citizens of Martigny, very different in colours and materials as it is
as well as the whole country and neighbouring three-dimensional and uses mosaic rather than
countries, to see the great works from the glass, but the ideas are the same – love, peace
Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum and tranquillity. Some figures and images are
which otherwise would have remained an similar, and the work is also hand-signed by
unaffordable dream for many. His Foundation Chagall. The Chagall Court was commissioned
also hosted the collection of Russian Icons from by friends, originally as a monumental structure
the Tretyakov Gallery. for a private residence (and not the monument
to Gianadda). Subsequently, the owners decided
Of course, he also deepened his passion for the to donate it to the Gianadda Foundation, which
avant-garde, with an exhibition of Kandinsky, seems its rightful place.
and even Malevitch, whose famous (and not
always understood) “Black Square” honoured It bespeaks a collective spirit of harmony and
the walls of the Foundation. But the great Mark beauty as if depicting how this big man saw and
Chagall was perhaps Gianadda’s favourite, and he perceived the world in every corner of his park,
organized several Chagall exhibitions. We were and in every corner of his life too. Chagall, too,
fortunate to have attended them all. They were wished to convey this message through all of his
simply breathtaking, showing masterpieces from works, globally through the United Nations in
major museums and great private collections. New York as well as at cosmopolitan Lincoln
Center, where two huge murals peer out onto
Today there is something even more significant Lincoln Plaza through the giant arched windows
there, a part of Chagall himself, called the of the front of the New York Metropolitan Opera
Cour Chagall – the Chagall Court. It is located House, and locally in the small town of Martigny,
in the famous Gianadda Sculpture Park that is in a valley deep in the Swiss Alps.
the setting of the exhibition hall. In memory
of Gianadda, a special tribute board has been We have written about Léonard Gianadda and
placed next to the Chagall Court, and there his exhibitions over the past few years, most
are posters showing the deep bond between recently encouraging colleagues to visit the
these two persons. Those who are admirers of Foundation for the Turner, Darbellay or Cartier-
Chagall may know that the Chagall Court is not Bresson exhibitions, as well as the Les années
the only Chagall masterpiece in Switzerland. fauves exhibition – a collaboration with the
The ninth-century Fraumünster Abbey in Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris – and of course
Zurich contains five stunning large stained glass the two most recent exhibitions, the Anker
windows created by Chagall and installed in the exhibition and the Cézanne-Renoir exhibition.
choir of the church. Three of the windows can The recent Anker exhibition, which brought
be viewed face to face: the blue, the yellow and together paintings from Swiss museums and
the central green; while a rose window in the private collections, was carefully prepared by
southern transept and another blue window in Léonard Gianadda personally, but regretfully,

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