Modigliani and His Times presents a survey of the work of Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) from the moment of his arrival in Paris in 1906 up to his premature death at the age of 35. Although focusing on a single creator, it includes not only Modigliani’s most important works—primarily paintings, along with sculptures and drawings— but also those by artists from his social and professional circles. It has thus been structured into two principal sections devoted to Modigliani’s relationships with his masters and with his friends.
Landscapes
Accustomed to working with live models, Modigliani expressed little interest in landscape before a stay in the south of France, where lack of professional models encouraged him to experiment in this genre. The small group of around six landscapes by the artist that have survived are close in approach to the work of Cézanne, Braque, and Derain, although they also anticipate an austere and melancholy type of landscape, close to the Italian Metaphysical School.
Quite different to Modigliani's restrained style, Soutine's intense, agitated landscapes executed in the south of France fully express his subjective approach. Maurice Utrillo, one of the artists closest to Modigliani, also placed his urban views of Paris at the heart of his output, using a soft, late Impressionist style. Chagall, in contrast, offered a fantastical and dream-like vision, painted with a formal liberty attained through his knowledge of Cubism. In the case of Léopold Survage, with whom Modigliani stayed for most of his time in Nice, his art mixed Synthetic Cubism with a brilliant, almost Fauve colouring.
Drawings
Drawing was an ongoing source of visual experimentation for Modigliani as well as the principal means by which he eked out an existence. Living in Montparnasse from 1909, the artist would visit the local cafés every morning in order to draw portraits of the public seated on the terraces. By around mid-day he had generally earned enough to survive until the next day. As the British art writer Clive Bell noted in his life of Modigliani, the artist was above all a remarkable draughtsman. The works on display here corroborate this.
Portraits (II)
Most of Modigliani's output consisted of portraits. In addition to providing his main source of income, these works enabled the artist to embrace the great racial and cultural mix to be found in Paris around 1915 to 1920, and together these likenesses constitute a mosaic of life in Montparnasse. During his stay in Cagnes and Nice between 1918 and 1919, Modigliani also painted peasants and village people. For the artist, the portrait was a way of opening himself up to "others" and of entering into other lives.
In Montparnasse, Modigliani met the leading figures of French art of the day, some of whom also devoted considerable time to portraiture. Among those closest to Modigliani were other Jewish painters such as Chaïm Soutine and Moïse Kisling, with whom he regularly associated from 1913. Soutine's work deploys a tempestuous expressionism that distorts and consumes the subjects, while Kisling is much more restrained, enveloping his figures in vivid colours and intense light.
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