FIRST OFF . . .

The first significant Soviet exhibit of paintings by Russian-born artist Marc Chagall will open at Moscow’s Pushkin Museum Sept. 2 and is expected to draw as many as 500,000 visitors, Soviet poet and cultural official Andrei Voznesensky said Sunday. Voznesensky said the exhibit will contain a large sample of the late artist’s work, done both in pre-Soviet Russia and while living abroad in France and the United States. A small showing of Chagall’s lithographs appeared at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in conjunction with his visit to the Soviet capital in June, 1973. But next month’s exhibit will be the first comprehensive showing of his work, Voznesensky said.