Modigliani: Beyond the Myth

This is the catalogue book for a great exhibition we saw at the Jewish Heritage Museum. The book represents the exhibit perfectly.

Background: Modigliani was a modernist artist who worked in the 1910s. He's best known for a series of provocative nudes, as well as sculpture-like portraits that are reminiscient of masks and primitive art (which also inspired Picasso at the time.) But his art has constantly been understood only through the lens of his life - a stereotypical bohemian life of the tortured artist, the model lovers, and a young death. He's the James Dean of the art world. This exhbition tries to view his art without being biased by his exciting life.

The book itself is a very good exhbition book, with large plates covering all of the works. It includes portraits, his nudes, sculptures, and even sketches. The text is a series of excellent essays, rather than a long dry study.

read July 2004

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