How does I and the Village use Cubist ideas?

Created in 1911, I and the Village is described as a Cubist narrative self-portrait that reflects Marc Chagall’s early exposure to the avant-garde art scene in Paris.1

While Chagall’s work is primarily noted for its nostalgic and surreal imagery, it incorporates Cubist ideas through the fragmentation and overlapping of forms. In the painting, themes, images, and impressions are presented in illogical proximity, creating a dreamlike structure where disparate elements—such as a man, a goat, and scenes of village life—are superimposed upon one another.1

This approach mirrors the Cubist tendency to break down traditional perspective and represent objects from multiple, simultaneous viewpoints rather than a single, fixed vantage point. By arranging these memories of his hometown of Vitebsk into a complex, non-linear composition, Chagall utilized the formal innovations of the Cubist movement to organize his personal, symbolic narrative.21