Modigliani, Amedeo
During
the early 1900s in Paris, the Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo
Modigliani, b. July 12, 1884, d. Jan. 24, 1920, developed a unique
style. Today his graceful portraits and lush nudes at once evoke his name, but
during his brief career few apart from his fellow artists were aware of his
gifts. Modigliani had to struggle against poverty and chronic ill health, dying
of tuberculosis and excesses of drink and drugs at the age of 35.
In
1906, Modigliani settled in Paris, where he encountered the works of Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec, Georges Rouault, and Pablo Picasso (in his "blue
period ") and assimilated their influence, as in The Jewess (1908; private collection,
Paris). The strong influence of Paul Cezanne's paintings is clearly evident,
both in Modigliani's deliberate distortion of the figure and the free use of
large, flat areas of color.
His
friendship with Constantin Brancusi kindled Modigliani's interest in sculpture,
in which he would continue his very personal idiom, distinguished by strong
linear rhythms, simple elongated forms, and verticality. Head (1912; Guggenheim Museum, New York
City) and Caryatid (1914;
Museum of Modern Art, New York City) exemplify his sculptural work, which
consists mainly of heads and, less often, of full figures.
After
1915, Modigliani devoted himself entirely to painting, producing some of his
best work. His interest in African masks and sculpture remains evident,
especially in the treatment of the sitters 'faces: flat and masklike, with
almond eyes, twisted noses, pursed mouths, and elongated necks. Despite their
extreme economy of composition and neutral backgrounds, the portraits convey a
sharp sense of the sitter's personality, as in Moise Kisling (1915; private collection, Milan). A fine
example of Modigliani's figure paintings is a reclining Nude (1917; Guggenheim Museum), an
elegant, arresting arrangement of curved lines and planes as well as a striking
idealization of feminine sexuality.
Modigliani's mannered art
The
third great outsider among the йmigrйs
in Paris died all too soon. The Italian Amedeo Modigliani destroyed himself
through drink and drugs, driven desperate by his poverty and bitterly ashamed
of it. Modigliani was a young man of fey beauty, and his work has a wonderful
slow elegance that is unusual, but compelling. Through the influence of the
Rumanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, he fell under the spell of primitive
sculpture, especially from Africa. He went on to develop a sophisticated,
mannered style built upon graceful, decorative arabesques and simplified forms.
It is hard for us to imagine why it did not attract patrons. He is famous now
for his elegant, elongated nudes, but it is portraits that are the most
extraordinary.
Chaim Soutine (1917; 91 x 60 cm (36 x 23 1/2 in))
whose own art was so off-beat, appeals to Modigliani for what he is bodily and
for what he could become spiritually. Soutine rears up out of the frame like a
gawky pillar. His nose is brutish in its spread, his eyes asymmetrical, his
hair a shaggy mess. All this uncouthness is contrasted by his slender wrists
and hands, by an impression we have of a man yearning for a homeland, set upon
forming one out of his own substance if no place is provided. There is sadness
here, but also determination: the thick red mouth is resolutely closed.
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