The Inimitable Sculpture of Modigliani

Recently, We needed to locate a house warming present for some friends but we were completely out of      ideas. For a similar occasion they’d presented us with a quaich, a Scottish symbol of everlasting friendship, and so i felt I should get something more special than a greeting card.

My friends are an unconventional couple you just can’t pigeonhole.  They’re  clever, witty and true individuals and since they were relocating into a new house, I finally decided a showy item could be suited, but what to pick? My own taste runs to things from the ancient world, such as {Roman art} and Greek statues. I put in a lot of time in search of something symbolic, a gift that had a story behind it, but Aphrodite didn’t seem appropriate, an Alexander bust was something I knew they already had and Hippocrates might have been ideal for a doctor, but not for an IT professional married to a lawyer. What I needed was a little something the same but also, like my friends, totally unique.

My eventual pick was a Modigliani sculpture, an elongated female head sculpture really different from the traditional statues I had considered but somehow precisely the same. Traditional and primitive simultaneously Modigliani artwork is plainly inspired by African Masks and Polynesian sculpture, clean and rounded while also long and angular, it is the contradiction which helps make the sculpture so remarkable.

Modigliani’s tale is a tragic one. Born in 1884, his genius for painting was obvious from early on, nonetheless his life was dominated by tuberculosis.  His mother guaranteed he had the best education, and he was very well respected by his art tutor, though he formulated his own individual style which has much more in keeping with the angular Art Deco movement yet to come than the curvaceous Art Nouveau still in fashion. Primarily, it is even now a style of it’s own, quite unique.

Similar to countless now renowned artists Modigliani was completely unknown during own life. He created an enormous quantity of work, oftentimes up to 100 sketches each day, but on many occasions he presented these to close friends or girlfriends who didn’t keep them. It seems as though he understood his life would be brief, and possibly as a result of that, he latched onto drugs and alcohol, to the stage where many claimed his unique style was due entirely to hashish, although it was plainly not true.   He was a follower of Nietzsche and Baudelaire and came to the conclusion authentic innovation involved dysfunction and defiance. At some point in his career he destroyed the majority of his previous works as he found them far inferior.

As time went by his wellness grew worse. He was rejected for army service in the First World War and continued to live in Paris, not knowing when the next payment of his allowance might appear. He was attractive and charming and women enjoyed him, but even though he had been able to sell a few art works in the course of his lifetime, he never produced any money from these.

Modigliani died a pauper, from meningitis, his sheets tarnished with oily fat from a sardine can, one and only thing he had still left to eat.  As always, there had been a lady involved. Much younger than Modigliani and on the day he died almost nine months pregnant with their 2nd child. Right after his passing her family members took her home and she went backwards out of a window, killing herself and the unborn child.

The stories regarding Modigliani’s lifetime are brimming with contradiction. Some have tried to imply that the girl, Jeanne Hebuterne had been just one more passing fad for the artist, however their daughter’s analysis showed she was an artist off considerable skill. The woman’s figurines had been shown for the first time in an exhibition in 2000.

As for the Modigliani art we settled on, the sculpture is tall and abstract depiction of a woman’s head that is both soft yet striking. We don’t know who she’s meant to be; there’s no tale unless we make one.  Virtually no specific type of interior decoration is needed. The Modigliani bust would look great anywhere you want it.

Personally, part of the attraction of this product as a gift is the similarity between the artisan and my friends. Both funny, clever and engaging, a rebel and an individual. There the characteristics between them end.