Warren Israel
Professor Wilson Ding
English 2150
October 15, 2023
Option 1: Choose two artworks of the same medium and genre and write two pages of analysis comparing, and contrasting those artifacts’ rhetorical elements.
Two chosen artworks:
- Marc Chagall “I and the Village”
- Kamala Ibrahim Ishag “Untitled”
When I went to the MOMA, two paintings really stood out to me, I and the Village by Marc Chagall and the untitled work of Kamala Ibrahim Ishag. I wanted to discuss the Marc Chagall painting because he is a very famous painter in Israeli and Jewish history. In fact, in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament hall, there is a hall solely dedicated to his artwork. The Ishag painting I chose because after touring the museum for a hot minute, Tasnima, Sabeehah, and I wanted to sit down and rest. During my research, I found that Ishag was an influential artist in Sudan, and helped establish the modern art movement in Sudan. We coincidentally sat in front of this painting, and as I was reading the description, I noticed many striking comparisons to Chagall’s.The main similarity I noticed was that both works depicted spiritual aspects of religion. Many of Chagall’s most famous works portray Jews in their Eastern European villages, or shetels (as they are called in Yiddish). They are very abstract and fantastically, almost psychedelic in appearance. Ishag’s painting illustrates a Sudanese women’s spirit possession cult named Zar. Both paintings also represent elements of nature. In the description of I and The Village, it stated that Chagall wanted to show the connection between humans and animals, and highlight the Hasidic belief that animals were humanity’s link to the universe. Ishag also utilized nature in her piece by using earthy colors, which helped enhance the motif of ancient African folk religions. The main difference between the two paintings is the perspective of the artists in relation to their works. Chagall grew up in the setting of his artwork. This is most likely why it contains a very diverse and vibrant array of colors. Chagall has a more personal relationship to this work, and by using these strong colors, the audience sees the childlike and lively perspective he does. Ishag, however, has a significantly more analytical position on her work. Although Ishag does have an interest in Zar, this was gained from her anthropological research on the community. While Chagall intends to show the audience his perspective as an insider, Ishag is attempting to show the audience the Zar community as an outsider. This is why Ishag uses earthy colors, and why she shows the faces of the women instead of painting from the perspective of the women. Ishag is painting the earthy, outer shell of this experience while painting in an abstract manner to attempt to explain to her audience what the experience is like. While both paintings are abstract depictions of religious communities, Chagall paints with more lively colors to show his insider childhood perspective, and Ishag paints in earthy, muted colors because since she is an outsider, she can only paint the exterior of the situation.