TORONTO, ON.- The Art Gallery of Ontario brings the magic and wonder of modern painter Marc Chagall to Toronto next month with a major exhibition organized by the world-renowned contemporary art museum, Centre Pompidou. Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris is on view from Oct. 18, 2011 to Jan. 15, 2012, and includes 32 vivid and imaginative works by Marc Chagall and eight pieces by Wassily Kandinsky, alongside pieces from other visionaries of Russian modernism such as Kasimir Malevich, Natalia Goncharova, Sonia Delaunay, and Vladimir Tatlin. A total of 118 works belonging to the collection of the Centre Pompidou comprises a broad array of media including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography and film.

Programming highlights for Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde include:

CHAGALL’S MUSICAL WORLD
Under the direction of acclaimed violinist Jacques Israelievitch, the Koffler Chamber Orchestra presents a concert inspired by Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde. Featuring works by Chagall’s favourite composers as well as those who share the painter’s Russian-Jewish background, the program includes a Mozart Divertimento, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48, Marc Kopytman’s Music for Strings and Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and Strings, featuring guest pianist Andrew Burashko.

PAST PRESENT: CHAGALL THROUGH TORONTO’S ARTISTS
Koffler Art Salon presents a not-to-be-missed evening of music, dance, performance, spoken word and more with Toronto’s avant-garde artists who reach back to the world of Chagall for inspiration. The evening includes performances by the eight-piece jazz fusion ensemble The Thing Is, the cutting-edge dance artists of Kaeja d’Dance, Russian-born accordionist Sasha Luminsky, and Yiddish jazz chanteuse Theresa Tova with pianist Matt Herskowitz, who offer an excerpt from their new production of Bella: The Colour of Love (based on the life of Bella Chagall, wife and muse to Marc Chagall).

MARC CHAGALL AND HIS TIMES Wednesday
Yale University’s Benjamin Harshav, a pre-eminent Jewish culture critic and a respected scholar on Chagall, presents a lecture on the artist and his times. Professor Harsha’s recent publications include Marc Chagall and the Lost Jewish World: The Nature of Chagall's Art and Iconography (Rizzoli, 2006); Marc Chagall and His Times: A Documentary Narrative (Stanford University Press, 2004). Presented in collaboration with the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto.

The presentation of Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde at the AGO is generously supported by Nance Gelber and Daniel Bjarnason, Leslie and Anna Dan, Joe and Budgie Frieberg, Al and Malka Green, and Dorothy Shoichet.