In Search of Style
Recently, My spouse and i had to locate a house warming gift for some friends but we were totally out of ideas. At a similar occasion they had given me with a quaich, a Scottish symbol of eternal friendship, and so i was feeling We had to get something more than just a greeting card.
Our friends really are an unconventional couple you just can’t pigeonhole. They’re smart, humorous and true individuals and since they were relocating to a new house, I decided a decorative object would be suited, but what to pick? My own, personal taste runs to things from the ancient world, like {Roman art} and Greek sculpture. I put in a lot of time looking for something symbolic, a present that had a story behind it, but Aphrodite didn’t seem right, an Alexander bust was something we knew our friends already had and Hippocrates would have been ideal for a doctor, but not for an IT professional married to a lawyer. What I needed was something the same and also, like my friends, completely different.
My eventual pick was a Modigliani sculpture, an elongated female head sculpture very different from the traditional figurines I had considered but precisely the same. Established yet primitive simultaneously Modigliani sculptures is clearly influenced by African Masks and Polynesian statues, smooth and rounded whilst long and angular, it is the contradiction which helps make the sculpture so remarkable.
Modigliani’s tale is a sad one. Born in 1884, his knack for art was apparent from an early age, nonetheless his life was dominated by tuberculosis. His mother ensured he had the best quality training, and he had been very highly regarded by his art teacher, though he designed his own personal style which has more in common with the angular Art Deco movement yet to come compared to curvaceous Art Nouveau still in vogue. Most of all, it is even now a style of it’s own, quite individual.
Like countless now famous artists Modigliani was completely unknown in his own lifetime. He produced a huge quantity of work, oftentimes as much as a hundred drawings each day, but on many occasions he gave these to close friends or girlfriends that didn’t keep them. It appears as though he knew his life would be short, and perhaps as a result of that, he latched onto drugs and alcohol, to the point where some stated his unique style had been due entirely to hashish, though this was clearly not true. He was a follower of Nietzsche and Baudelaire and came to the realization authentic creativity involved disorder and defiance. At some point in his career he demolished many of his previous works declaring them substandard.
As time went by his well being grew worse. He was refused for military service in the First World War and continued to live in Paris, not knowing if the next payment of his allowance would appear. He was attractive and affable and women enjoyed him, but even though he had been able to sell a few paintings in the course of his lifetime, he never produced any money from these.
He died quite penniless, from meningitis, his linens tarnished with oily fat from a sardine can, one and only thing he had left to eat. As always, there had been a lady involved. Much more youthful than Modigliani and on the day he died almost nine months pregnant with their 2nd child. Right after his demise the woman’s family took her home and she went backwards out of a window, killing herself and the unborn infant.
The stories about Modigliani’s life are filled with contradiction. Many have attempted to say that the woman, Jeanne Hebuterne had been merely another passing fad for the artist, however their daughter’s analysis revealed she was an artist in her own right. The woman’s statues had been exhibited for the first time in an exhibition in 2000.
As for the Modigliani art we settled on, the statue is tall and abstract depiction of a woman’s head that is both striking and soft. Unfortunately we cannot find out who she is meant to be; there is no tale unless we make one. Virtually no distinct style of room decoration is needed. The Modigliani bust would look good anywhere you want it.
For me, part of the appeal of this object as a gift is actually the likeness between the artist and my friends. Each witty, clever and appealing, a rebel and an individual. There the commonalities between them end.
