The Chagall That Took My Breath Away

In 1984, on a trip to Paris, I visited the Pompidou Center and roamed the high-tech structure with exposed colored pipes, high wide walls of plexiglass, and a vaguely alienating environment hung strewn with modern art and sculpture.

Near the end of my stay, a bit tired from a full day of walking around Paris, I turned a corner and, alone in an enclosed alcove I saw this painting. I swear, I exhaled deeply, an expression of surprise, delight and awe. When I look at reproductions of the painting today I feel nothing. But my memory remains and is one of those peak experiences that defines my life. Do others have these experiences where an intellectual and emotional event is manifested physically? Wilhelm Reich and his disciples would surely say yes. I am unfamiliar with the literature about the psychology of art but I suspect, like with music, the emotional impact of beauty and form is, if not universal, a common human experience. Have you had such an experience?

This one got to me too

Comments

[Jenny]

Absolutely! I visited the Louvre in 2001 - there were all the artworks and sculptures I had read so much about in art lessons at School. Even the Mona Lisa took my breathe away but I think it was the Winged Victory that really held me spellbound. As a little girl I visited Toledo, Spain, where I was entranced by a painting by El Greco "The Burial of Count Orgaz" - I wrote a post about it a few weeks ago. The emotional impact of this painting remains with me 35 years later.

[Anna]

Lucien Freud. Girl with white dog
This froze me to the ground when I first saw it. The strength of both bodies, the direct glance, lemony-grey tones, translucent breast - stunning.

All his work is riveting: a few examples at No Oil Painting