Modigliani: Tortured Artist
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Recently, We had to locate a house warming present for friends but we were totally out of ideas. For a similar special occasion they'd presented us with a quaich, a Scottish symbol of eternal friendship, so i was feeling We should get something beyond just a card.
My friends are an extraordinary couple you just can't classify easily. They're certainly smart, humorous and true individuals and because they were moving in to a brand new home, I decided a showy object could be perfect, but I was at a loss as to what to choose? My own taste runs to elements from the ancient world, such as {Roman art} and Greek sculpture. I spent ages trying to find something symbolic, a present that has a meaning, but Aphrodite didn't seem appropriate, an Alexander bust was something we knew our friends already had and Hippocrates would have been perfect for a physician, but not for an IT expert and a lawyer. What I needed was a little something the same and also, like my friends, totally unique.
My ultimate choice was a Modigliani sculpture, an elongated female head sculpture very different from the classical figurines I'd thought about but precisely the same. Time-honored but primitive at the same time Modigliani art is plainly inspired by African Masks and Polynesian sculpture, sleek and rounded whilst long and angular, it's the contradiction which makes the sculpture so wonderful.
Modigliani's tale is a heartbreaking one. Born in 1884, his knack for painting was apparent from early on, nonetheless his life was ruled by tuberculosis. His mother made certain he had the best quality teaching, and he had been very highly regarded by his art tutor, even though he created 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 vogue. Most of all, it is even now a style of it's own, quite individual.
Similar to many now well-known artists Modigliani was basically unknown during own life. He generated a tremendous volume of work, oftentimes as much as 100 sketches per day, but most of the time he gave these to friends or girlfriends that didn't keep them. It appears as if he knew his life would be short, and probably because of that, he latched onto drugs and alcohol, to the stage where some reported his distinctive style had been credited entirely to hashish, however it was obviously not true. He was a follower of Nietzsche and Baudelaire and came to the realization true originality required disorder and defiance. At some point in his career he destroyed a lot of his earlier art declaring them inferior.
As time passed his wellness grew worse. He was rejected for military 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 affable and women liked him, but even though he managed to showcase a few paintings in the course of his lifetime, he never produced any money from them.
He passed away quite penniless, from meningitis, his sheets discolored with oil from a sardine can, one and only thing he had left to eat. As always, there was a lady involved. Much younger than Modigliani and on the day he perished nearly nine months pregnant with their 2nd child. After his passing the woman's family members took her home and she went backwards out of a window, killing herself and the unborn infant.
The tales concerning Modigliani's lifetime are brimming with contradiction. Some have tried to imply that the girl, Jeanne Hebuterne had been just one more passing fancy for the artist, but their daughter's analysis showed the woman had been a painter off considerable skill. Her statues were exhibited for the very first time in an exhibition in 2000.
As for the Modigliani art we settled on, the sculpture itself is tall and abstract depiction of a woman's head that is both striking and soft. We don't recognize who she's meant to be; there is no legend unless we make one. No particular type of furnishings is needed. The Modigliani bust would look good anywhere.
For me, a part of the appeal of this product as a gift is the similarity between the artisan and my friends. Equally witty, intelligent and interesting, a rebel and an individual. There the similarities between them end.
