Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani led the dissipated, extravagant life of a bohemian in Paris at the beginning of this century. Yet in this apparently glittering and restless life, which came to a sudden end when he was just 35, is not reflected in his work at all. Modigliani’s paintings and sculptures are marked by cool detachment, with often archaically austere depictions of the human figure and acutely characterized portraits. The avant-garde movements of the time, such as Cubism, Fauvism, and Futurism, had little effect on his art.
It is not theory, but the human being that lies at the center of Modigliani’s work. He drew inspiration from artists of the Renaissance and the Rococo periods for his distanced, dignified portraits. His preferred models were friends and his companion Jeanne Hebuterne, but he also depicted simple country people.
The author provides a sympathetic interpretation of Modigliani’s career. She charts the artist’s development from the penetrating psychological studies of his early portraits, through images of a more decorative nature – the graceful figures with the famous almond-shaped eyes and swan-like necks – to his mature depictions of nudes, which remain valid icons of femininity.