The Musée du Luxembourg in Paris has organised an exhibition devoted to Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani due to last until March 2nd 2003. Known as a cursed artist like Van Gogh, the handsome Modigliani who also was a drug-addict and drunkard died in 1920 at 36.
This exhibition held twenty years after the great retrospective that took place at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris has been titled “The Angel with a serious face”.
Visitors are invited to admire 110 paintings, some thirty drawings et only one sculpture.
The fact is that Modigliani has always been cherished by the public however well after his death. Admired as a major artist he never belonged to any kind of school and worked as a solitary artist who had developed his own style.
Some 70 paintings have been loaned by private collectors and half of them have never been exhibited in France so far.
Modigliani was not so prolific as it has been estimated that he only painted between 350 and 400 works during his short career. Among the best paintings to be discovered by visitors are Leopold Zborowski's portrait painted in 1916, Jeanne Hébuterne's portrait executed in 1919, a Lying Nude from the Osaka Museum, a Nude with a hat done in 1909, Pierre Reverdy's portrait, “Raimondo” (Raymond Radiguet's portrait) and the Beggar from Leghorn.
Other major works include “The Cello player”, a woman begging, a woman dreaming and a nude with a fresco.
Adrian Darmon