The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 33. Beatrice Hastings, Seated (1915)

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

The 33rd work to introduce for this week is “Beatrice Hastings, Seated (1915)”.

This work is a portrait of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 73.5 x 49.5 cm.

This work is one of many paintings for modeling Beatrice Hastings by Modigliani.

A columnist for the British weekly magazine, “New Age”, she came to Paris as a correspondent in Paris in 1914 and met Modigliani.

Hastings was also a woman who was controversial because of her unusual attire and behavior.

Modigliani and Hastings were lovers for two years, sharing alcohol and drugs, constantly fighting, and arguing.

Modigliani was a genius artistic, talented painter who was famous for wonderfully expressing the characters or personalities of the models in his paintings.

However, this work is unique in that it is painted so that the character or personality of Hastings is not recognized at all.

Painted as simple as if it feels lacking in expressiveness, it seems like this work shows the reappearance of Modigliani's regret for the sculpture.

Elongated neck, oval head, curved and simple contours, everything evokes a sculptural style, especially very similar to the Caryatid style.

There is also no background decoration except Hastings' chair and the chair is rounded to match the curved and rounded model.

Hastings' eyes are drawn without pupils, giving the impression of seeing the background through the eyes.

The model's face and neck were tilted to the right for a balanced composition against the model, who is sitting biased to the left, throughout the canvas.

In addition, Hastings' face and her body including her wrapped arms are in oval form, and it feels like small and large ovals are symmetrically attached.

For the colors used, Modigliani used red and warm colors throughout the work, which make Hastings' shadow look like black smoke from behind her.

Thank you.

Korean Blog

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

How are you?

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.

Korean Blog

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The Introduction of the Works by Amedeo Modigliani: 21. Caryatid (c.1912)

How are you?

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

The 21st work to introduce for this week is “Caryatid (c.1912)”.

This work is a nude painting of an expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 72.9 x 50.1 cm.

Currently, the “Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen” in Düsseldorf, Germany possesses this work.

“Caryatid” is a sculpture of a female figure and serves as an architectural support replacing a column supporting the entablature, which is the horizontal part of the upper part of the column, on her hand.

The Greek word "karyatides" means “maidens of Karyai”, an ancient village of Peloponnese.

In Karyai, there was a temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis.

"As Karyatis, she was delighted in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai. Those Karyatides ecstatically danced carrying on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants”.

Modigliani drew more than 70 drawings for Caryatid.

The style of these works shows that Modigliani was fascinated by the wide variety of arts considered to be ‘primitive’, including “African” art.

Though not realized, Modigliani is said to have envisioned a 'temple of humanity' surrounded by hundreds of Caryatid.

A number of various drawings of Modigliani as a sculptor at the time were not just preliminary sketches of particular sculptures, but also a means of generating ideas for his later sculptures.

As in many sketches, the face of this work evokes ancient Egyptian or Mycenaean sculpture, and the body is almost geometrically divided.

The model's hair style in this work, is very similar to the style used in classical Greek sculptures, showing more Mediterranean than African.

The arms look elongated and strong, but the body is long and thin, and the waist is bent at an angle that is difficult to support the weight of the stone.

The woman's legs also look very strong, like her arms, but her bent waist seems to be in danger of breaking soon due to the weight of the stones she supports, and therefore the woman looks unstable.

In addition, this work is a nude painting of a women but depicts a vision of power and tranquility despite the unstable waist rather than the sensuality of the woman.

The work is known to be inspired by the Russian female poet “Anna Akhmatova”, who was once a lover of Modigliani.

Later, Akhmatova said about Modigliani as follow.

"I was lucky because I met Modigliani before everyone else. Everyone who remembers Modigliani met him in 1914 and 1915, but I met him in 1910."

She often modelled for Modigliani and said as follow.

"What Modigliani was interested in was not a model's appearance, but a pose. He drew several drawings, representing me as a dancer or an Egyptian princess."

Her slender, elegant body, glamorous face with an aquiline nose and short hair are well represented in many drawings and sculptures by Modigliani.

After breaking up with Modigliani, she lived a painful and turbulent life due to the Soviet’s political persecution, and as a result, she was able to preserve only one drawing of Modigliani.

In this work, you can see a dark-colored man's head in the back of a kneeling woman, and some critics claim that this man is “Maldoror”, the fictional main character of Modigliani's favorite literary work.

Maldoror is the main character of the “Les Chants de Maldoror”, a prose poem written by the Uruguayan-born French writer "Comte de Lautréamont" between 1868 and 1869.

In this work, Maldoror emerged as an evil figure who gave up the conventional morality. 

It was not well known at the time of its first publication, but was rediscovered by surrealist artists in the early 20th century.

Another interesting fact is that by turning this work 180 degrees, you can discover a new painting, such as an Egyptian sculpture, and perhaps Modigliani seems to continue testing while thinking about how to draw Caryatid.

Thank you.

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