The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 27. The Red Head (1915)

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Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.

The 27th work to introduce for this week is “The Red Head (1915)” painted in Paris, France.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on cardboard with the size of 54 x 42.5 cm.

It is currently owned by the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, France.

The model in this work is Beatrice Hastings, a British writer, poet, and literary critic who has been a lover of Modigliani for two years from 1914 to 1916.

In this work, Beatrice Hastings is depicted as a round face with a bang and a hair band tied her hair, which is definitely drawn in a different style from other Hastings’ works.

In Modigliani's work, for a particular person that he drew as series, he tried different styles on the same person, and painted him or her differently so as to be mistaken as other person.

It was the peak period, struggling to find his own definitive style during Modigliani's life.

Therefore, it was also the peak period experimenting with various art styles in his works, during his life.

In other words, this work combines the elements of fauvism from dark red color and cubism from her nose, and Modigliani's unique style leaving one eye empty without pupil, which was started in 1915.

Also, looking at Modigliani's brushstrokes in this work, it feels as if he stopped the drawing unfinished.

It's probably because of these struggles that if he didn't like a particular style he tried, he immediately stopped it and tried a different style.

Such various attempts of styles by Modigliani can be seen in other works he painted in the same year, such as Portrait of Henri Laurens.

Looking at Modigliani's works, his definitive style is prominent at the end of his life, indicating that Modigliani has spent most of his life struggling and striving to find his own definitive style.

For Modigliani, moving to Paris gave him the opportunity to make a dramatic change in his art world and style, as well as his human aspect.

In other words, the works before Modigliani came to Paris were mostly standard paintings reflecting classical art.

But after he moved to Paris, he was influenced by Paul Cezanne, African art, various art movements and many avant-garde artists related to the art movements in Paris at the time.

Therefore, the artistic diversity of Paris has caused great confusion in his artistic view that Modigliani had before moving to Paris, and in order to escape this confusion, he has become obsessive to make his own definitive style as soon as possible.

If we look at the transition process of Modigliani's art style in three stages, it can be classified by the period reflecting classical art before moving to Paris, the transition period from classical art to his own definitive style, and the period reflecting his own definitive style.

However, looking at Modigliani's works, his early style is reappearing in his later works, indicating that the transition process of his art style did not flow unilaterally.

In other words, rather than linear and unilateral, it was the process including recurrence and return.

Thank you.

Korean Blog