A major exhibition on Modigliani sheds new light on the artist’s way of working

An x-ray showing a lower drawing under the 1917 work, “Reclining Nude on Back (Nu couché de dos)”. Credit: The Barnes Foundation (CNN) — More than a century after Amedeo Modigliani’s death, a consortium of art historians and conservation experts convened by the Barnes Foundation of Philadelphia has uncovered hidden aspects of the artist’s techniques thanks to new research and analytical technologies.
Classically trained in his native Italy, Modigliani was one of many young artists who converged on Paris in the early 20th century. But the avant-garde achievements of his short career were long overshadowed by his bohemian life story. Nicknamed “Modi,” a pun on “maudit,” the French word for “cursed,” he became involved in a series of turbulent love affairs, lived in poverty, struggled with alcoholism and substance abuse, and died. of tuberculosis at just 35 years of age. But Modigliani’s chaotic reputation hides a stylistically contained and high-quality work. “Modigliani Up Close,” a major exhibition opening this month at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, aims to deconstruct the myth and dissect the artist’s working methods. The institution’s founder, Albert C. Barnes, was one of the artist’s earliest patrons, collecting his first works in 1922, the year in which he founded the institution. A new Modigliani exhibition at the Barnes Foundation takes a closer look at the techniques of the artist, whose turbulent life often overshadowed his artistic ability. Credit: Cerruti Foundation for Art/Museum of Contemporary Art Castello di Rivoli/Turin The show of more than 60 works is organized by art historians and curators working together: Barnes Chief Curator Nancy Ireson and Senior Director of Curator Barbara Buckley are joined by Consulting Conservator Simonetta Fraquelli and London Tate Curator of Paintings Annette King. The project, involving 28 institutions and some private lenders, builds on a smaller study originally conducted between 2017 and 2018 for Tate Modern’s Modigliani studio exhibition, co-curated by Ireson and Fraquelli. It also incorporates the findings of a 2018-21 study of all of the artist’s paintings and sculptures in French public collections. An x-ray showing a lower drawing under the 1917 work, “Reclining Nude on Back (Nu couché de dos)”. Credit: The Barnes Foundation “There is still a lot to learn about Modigliani as an artist,” Ireson, who headlined the exhibition after moving from the Tate to the Barnes in 2018, said in an interview with The Art Newspaper. It is unclear what happened to the contents of her study after Modigliani’s death, and she did not leave any writings describing her creative process. “There’s a lot of conjecture and mythmaking, but really, when you start looking at the physical works themselves, they challenge some of the narratives.” A common misconception is that Modigliani’s characteristic style of simplified, elongated figures never changed. “Modigliani only painted four landscapes,” King noted in a joint interview with Buckley. “He specialized in portraiture, but in a way it’s even more fascinating to see how he evolves as an artist with this single subject.” What Lies Beneath The show opens with the works Modigliani created after his arrival in Paris, during which he often used old canvas, painting both over his own rejected compositions and the work of others. A new X-ray analysis uncovered three hitherto unknown sketches beneath the 1908 double-sided work “Nude with a Hat/Maud Abrantès” in the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa. French conservators also found six paintings in “Antonia,” made around 1915, sparking a theory that wartime constraints forced the impoverished artist to reuse canvas, rather than paint on new ones. But this new research suggests that Modigliani’s destitution was not the only motivation. Modigliani earned 500 francs for his first portrait commission, “Jean-Baptiste Alexandre with a Crucifix,” from 1909, yet decided to compose the work on an old canvas. For “The Beautiful Housewife / La Jolie ménagère,” painted six years later, he worked in thin layers that blended the skin tone of the sitter and the wicker basket with the colors and textures of the underlying paintings. “It’s a very ingenious way of working,” Ireson said. The exhibition is a comprehensive survey of the artist’s practice, with more than 60 works, following a survey at London’s Tate Modern. Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource Other exhibits delve into Modigliani’s careful painting technique.”His color palette was thought to be quite limited,” Buckley said.”But once you start to look more closely, you see that he uses color very skillfully.” He exposed glimpses of the blue-gray canvas background to add depth to his provocative female nudes, “contrasting and complementing the warm pink tones of the skin,” Buckley added, sometimes using a piece of cloth or paper to soften the texture of skin, King added.”Based on the information from his paintings, we don’t think of him as a chaotic artist at all.”As for the sculptures that dominated Modigliani’s practice between 1911 and 1913, science seems support at least some of the stories about his bohemian lifestyle. “There is still a lot to learn about Modigliani as an artist,” said Nancy Ireson, chief curator at the Barnes. Credit: The Bruce and Robbi Toll Collection/Barnes Foundation Reanalysis of eight carved stone heads was “one of the most beautiful discoveries,” Ireson said. Wax buildups were found on the tops of several heads, consistent with anecdotes that Modigliani burned candles over sculptures in his studio, creating the atmosphere of an ancient temple. Planing and masonry marks also confirm that the artist collected stone blocks from the works in Paris. Conservatives hope that this new body of technical research, accumulated over the years, will serve as a “springboard” for further study of Modigliani, Buckley said. “Probably, in a way, our project raises more questions than it answers, because you always have to nuance the results,” Ireson explained. Ultimately, however, the exhibition’s comprehensive approach reveals a clear conclusion about the bigger picture, she said. “It shows that Modigliani is a complex artist.” “Modigliani Up Close” will be available from the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia through January 29, 2023.