Culture & Arts; Lecturer, Writer, Contents creator, Broadcaster
;President, Art Collage JANG/J Books & Media/Modigliani Institute Korea
;Author, “The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories” series
The
11th place I would like to introduce for this week is The National Gallery of
Denmark in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The
National Gallery of Denmark (Danish: Statens Museum for Kunst, also known as
"SMK") is the largest art museum in Denmark and is also officially
the main museum for visual art in Denmark. SMK supports fostering and
developing museum activities throughout Denmark, and cultivating and
strengthening cooperation with museums in Denmark and abroad.
SMK
has the largest art collection in Denmark with over 260,000 works. The art
collection was originally built as the royal collection, meaning the private
property of the Danish kings, but with the introduction of democracy in Denmark
in the mid-1800s, the collection was handed over to the people, which
ultimately gave birth to SMK.
The large collection of works of art can be seen
at SMK's exhibitions and presentations, but the collection is so vast that if
you visit SMK on a specific date, only a small part of it will be displayed.
Many works in the collection are displayed at other museums in Denmark or
abroad as part of their exhibitions, but most of the collection is kept in the
museum's storage facilities.
Currently, SMK is working to realize its ambition
to digitize its entire art collection, making it freely available online.
The
works of Modigliani currently in the possession of The National Gallery of
Denmark are as follows.
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.
The 28th work to introduce for this
week is “Alice (1915)” painted in Paris, France.
This work is a portrait of an
expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 78 x 39 cm.
In 1928, art collector “Johannes
Rump” donated the work to the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen, and it
is still possessed by the museum.
Modigliani marked the title
"Alice" in the top left with his signature in the top right of this
work.
Alice, the model of the work, was a
lover of the French novelist and poet “Raymond Radiguet”, whose portraits Modigliani
painted as the title of "Raymond”.
This is a portrait of a girl
sitting with her hands on her knees in a blue dress contrasted with the dark
skin of the model, decorated with white frills and golden cross.
The models of Modigliani's work are
often stared on the side, but in this work, the model with almond-shaped eyes
is facing the front and we can feel calm with her gentle pose.
Modigliani is known for his unique
style such as an elongated face and body, a mask-like face and eyes with no
pupils.
His unique style was based on the
influence of Mannerism painters, such as Parmigianino, and Italian Renaissance
masters such as Sandro Botticelli.
Then, after moving to Paris in
1906, he was influenced by Cézanne, African art, the various art movements that
existed in Paris at the time, and the avant-garde artists involved in the art
movements.
Therefore, Modigliani's unique
style is the result of the influences of these diverse and complex art fields.
But this portrait is quite
different from the other portraits showing his unique style.
That is, although the neck was
drawn in a cylindrical style, the face was egg-shaped, therefore, no
exaggerated elongation of the face appeared, and the image itself is less
abstract.
However, Modigliani used a
different way of expressing his preferred elongated drawing style in his work.
It was that he intentionally made
the canvas into a narrow, long vertical form.
The color composition of the work
is simple, but the vivid colors and bold outlines used in the work are enough
to attract the viewer.
Also, Alice's hair, flowing down
into the dress, seems to be intentional for relieving the African mask-style
image of her face.
Compared with the works of other
painters, the overall blue feel of the work, including the model's blue dress,
is reminiscent of the works of "blue" period by Pablo Picasso.
It is also reminiscent of the feeling
of Tahiti women painted by Paul Gauguin in the model's dark skin, expression
and appearance.
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