The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 22. Standing Caryatid (1913)

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

The 22nd work to introduce for this week is “Standing Caryatid (1913)”.

This work is a nude painting of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 81 x 45 cm.

Sculpture was Modigliani's ambition, and at one time Modigliani thought he was a sculptor rather than a painter.

His passion as a sculptor is also evident in his numerous paintings of Caryatid, which was a preliminary work of sculpture.

When drawing this work, Modigliani was inspired by sculptures from Etruria as well as those from Africa.

Etruscan art was created by the Etruscan civilization in central Italy.

And since about 750 B.C., Etruscan art has been heavily influenced by Greek art imported by the Etruscans, but under these circumstances the Etruscans have always retained their distinct and unique features.

Remarkable areas of this Etruscan art tradition were the sculptures of terracotta (particularly the life size of sarcophagus or temple), wall-paintings and metalworking in bronze, as well as a lot of high-quality jewelry.

For today's work, the features that are common to ancient Greek sculptures are stronger than the magical feeling of African sculptures.

It also reveals the primitive and totem aspects found in “The Kiss” in 1908, a sculpture created by Brancusi, who led Modigliani into the world of sculpture.

Many of Caryatid's works by Modigliani were the preliminary studies to generate ideas for his later sculpture works.

Modigliani carved the full sized Caryatid and the head in stone.

Compared to today's Caryatid work with the previously introduced Caryatid work, the elongated body, the strong arms and legs, and the extraordinarily thin waist are the same, but the biggest difference is the jewelry surrounded the waist and hips.

As I commented earlier, this work was influenced by Etruscan art, and one of the distinguishing features of Etruscan art was the production of high-quality jewelry, therefore it is believed that Modigliani drew the jewelry bands under the influence of such Etruscan art.

These jewelry bands can be seen as body embellishments, but they were also used as a means of geometrically dividing the body of the model.

And it looks much more comfortable in standing and facial expressions than the previously introduced Caryatid.

Her arms extend on both sides of her head, making her more easily support the weight on her than the previous work.

Also, the model is not straightening her both legs, one of which is slightly bent and lies in front of the other.

It also looks like a preliminary movement to relax the dancers to make it easier to dance.

As mentioned earlier, Caryatid is a word "Karyatides” in Greek, meaning “maidens of Karyai”, an ancient village of Peloponnese.

Those Karyatides ecstatically danced carrying on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants.

Therefore, it is thought that Modigliani has placed the legs of the model to suggest the meaning of “dancing”, which means the word itself.

Thank you.

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The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 17. The Amazon (1909)

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

The 17th work to introduce for this week is “The Amazon (1909)”.

This work is, a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 92 x 65 cm, painted by Modigliani in 1909.

In the late 1907, Modigliani met Dr. Paul Alexandre, by the introduction of a painter and his friend ‘Henri Doucet’, who later became a friend and a patron of Modigliani.
The friendship of the two, then, continued until the World War I broke out and Alexandre joined the army as a surgeon.
While meeting Alexandre, Modigliani was a young, unknown artist, but Alexandre soon recognized his talent.
As a friend of Modigliani, Alexandre commissioned him for his work for the first time to help Modigliani.
He also actively arranged commissions for his works to the acquaintances around him, and one of them is "The Amazon”, which is introduced today.
This work is also called “The Portrait of a Woman in a Horse Riding Suit.”
It was not commissioned by Alexandre, but commissioned by Baroness Marguerite de Hasse de Villers on his recommendation, and the model of the work was also Marguerite herself.
She was a beautiful socialite and a lover of Jean, who was Alexander's younger brother at the time.
In this work, she is posing in a riding suit.
Posing in a white shirt, black tie, black pants, black hat, black gloves and a yellow jacket, she looks at the viewer in slightly arrogant manner with her black gloved hands on her waist.
She is also showing a powerful and confident appearance of a socialite at the time.
Her attire is a man's suit rather than a woman's suit, but her appearance in this work rather gives a 'Femme Fatal' feeling with overflowing confidence and pride.
One of the elements that Modigliani struggled with a number of models when he was drawing was his stubborn character.
In other words, no matter how he drew by commission, Modigliani stopped drawing or didn’t speed up the work if he did not like the model who commissioned.
His such personality led to a conflict with Marguerite, who commissioned this work, and finally this work became a nightmare to Modigliani.
She continued to push Modigliani to quickly complete this work.
At some point, she lost her patience and threatened Modigliani with the final notice to cancel the commission if he doesn’t complete this work within a week.
However, until then, Modigliani had repeated many sketches for this work, and as a result, the process of this work went very slowly.
Considering the reasons for such repetitive works, Modigliani was commissioned by the help of his friend, Alexandre, but he might dislike Marguerite very much when he met her or he might ponder to figure out how to express her, who had a genius talent of capturing the mind or characteristics of the model very well in his works. 
Perhaps Modigliani might not have confidence about how to draw her.
Therefore, the rapid progress in drawing Marguerite might be a challenge and impossible to Modigliani from the start.
When Modigliani showed this work to Marguerite, she was so angry with claiming that the model in this work was not her, and then she refused to purchase it.
Despite this attitude of Marguerite, Alexandre saw the great potential of Modigliani's avant-garde approach in this work and purchased it.
When he was painting this work, the elongated expression, which is one of the representative painting styles of Modigliani, was not fully established but he was steadily going in that direction. 
There are also very sculptural elements on the face of the model, such as the model's elongated chin, sharp cheekbone narrowing towards the chin, pointed ears, small tight lips compared to the face, slightly narrowing eyes and thin bow-shaped eyebrows.
In 1909, when this work was painted, Modigliani began to recognize himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, and began to concentrate on sculpture in earnest when he met a sculptor Constantin Brâncuși.
Perhaps Modigliani's enthusiasm and commitment to the sculptures was attempted on the face of the model when he painted this work.
In other words, it is a work that shows both the traces of elongated drawing style and sculptures he has indulged.
Also, in this work, Modigliani drew Marguerite's face sharply but contrasted by drawing the lines of her body and clothes smoothly to alleviate this sharpness throughout the work. 
It is his genius talent showing the compactness of the composition perfectly balancing the overall composition of the painting.
The most prominent color in this work is the yellow color of the jacket, which is more noticeable due to the dark green color of the background.
In addition, the signed position by Modigliani after he completed his work was not fixed. In this work, the left side of the model is slightly wider than the right side of the model. 
Modigliani signed at the bottom of the left side for the stability in this work, and it resulted in perfect organization and harmonization with the size and position of the model.

Thank you.

The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 16. The Cellist (1909)

How are you?

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

The 16th work to introduce for this week is “The Cellist (1909)”.

This work is, a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 130 x 80 cm, painted by Modigliani in 1909.

This work used differentiated colors to express the moment when the cellist is immersed in his playing of cello.

This work has a strong influence on ‘Paul Cézanne’, and it even creates the illusion that the work mimics the characters of ‘The Card Players’ by Cézanne.

Also in this work, the unusually elongated cellist's arms suggest the beginning of an elongated drawing style that later becomes one of Modigliani's characteristic painting styles.

For the cellist in this work, the viewers are indifferent beings, and he is so immersed in the performance that he has no interest in anything but the instrument.

The model in this work was a poor cellist who lived there when Modigliani had a studio in Falguière.

This work also has a study work, but even in the case of the study work, although some parts of it were not painted, it feels like a completed work.

In 1910, Modigliani exhibited both completed and study works in the ‘Salon des Indépendants’, which was his second and last.

The painting in the background of this work is a portrait of sculptor ‘Brancusi’, who was Modigliani's friend.

It looks like the model, the cellist, is talking to his cello and, as the cello whispers, his body is in tune according to the instrument.

In general, musicians tend to prioritize their instruments rather than themselves, and in this work, the player feels like he is wrapping his instrument in a devoted manner with the intention of protecting it in any case.

It also looks like that the player and the instrument is a whole body, not knowing whether the player leads the cello by playing or vice versa.

In this work, Modigliani blunted the presence of the bow of the cello by blurring it compared to the cello.

The reason seems that the cello is a musical instrument with a bow, but in order to convey the idea to the viewer that the musical performance in this picture is a communication between the cellist and the cello, not by bow but by dialogue between the two.

This work also highlights the choice of colors.

The model in this work was a poor musician at the time.

Therefore, in order to highlight his harsh and difficult life, it seems that Modigliani used blue color for his attire because ‘blue’ also means ‘gloomy’ as well as color.

Such choice of the attire’s color is a concept similar to ‘black’ color, which Modigliani used for the attire of the model who was rich and well-educated.

Also, in the background colors that Modigliani selected in order to avoid disturbing the performer who is immersed in the playing of the musical instrument, and allow the viewers to concentrate on the performer with being almost indifferent to the background, we can feel the thoughtfulness of Modigliani for the performer as well as his artistic genius for the colors.

It was Belle Époque era in Paris when Modigliani painted this work.

Modigliani, however, did not follow the trend of the time and went his own way as a convincing artist.

In 1909, an artist, who was an acquaintance of Modigliani, Kurt Störmer, visited his studio in Paris.

At that time, Störmer saw this work as a completed painting, and he was impressed by this fantastic work, which showed Modigliani’s artistic genius in color selection.

Thank you.