After Amadeo Modigliani, 1998

After AMADEO MODIGLIANI (Livorno, Italy, 1884 - Paris, France, 1920).
"Tete de femme", 1998.
Bronze, copy 5/8.
Signed, numbered and with foundry stamp.
Authorized posthumous casting created from an original stone model by Modigliani.
Attached certificate of guarantee from the Merighi Gallery.
Measurements: 52.5 x 11 x 14 cm (sculpture); 15 x 15 x 15 x 15 cm (base).

The piece captures the essence of Modigliani's intense career as a sculptor. The dominant form is vertical. The head is oval and markedly elongated, and sits on a long, cylindrical neck, which acts more as a pedestal than an anatomical part. The facial features are reduced to their geometric essence and have a mask-like quality: almond-shaped eyes, without pupils, like those of an archaic statue; long, thin and straight nose, rising almost from the forehead; small and delicate mouth. Of primitivist inspiration, the elegance of the piece comes from this radical stylization.

Modigliani considered himself, above all, a sculptor during the first and crucial stage of his career in Paris (approximately 1909-1914). This "Tete de femme" is a compendium of Modigliani's great obsessions: African and Oceanic art, archaic art and Brancusi. These three influences would give rise to a work of enormous personality.

Modigliani's artistic life was spent in Paris, in extreme circumstances at times, which made him a legend of Parisian bohemia at the beginning of the century. Settled in Montmartre, his youthful work was influenced by Picasso, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec. In 1907 he enrolled in the Salon des Indépendants, where he presented sculptures in 1912. From that same year dates his work "Seated Nude", where the unmistakable characteristics of his female portraits are already defined: the torso painted in a more or less naturalistic way, almost full body, and the face with the typical mannerism of the artist, without decorative elements that accompany the figure or hide it. In December 1917 he held his first solo exhibition at the Parisian gallery of Berta Weill. Although several of his paintings were withdrawn by the police for "offenses to modesty", and he did not sell any work in this first exhibition, Modigliani began to be a well-known and esteemed painter in Paris. In 1919 he exhibited at the Hill Gallery in London and, despite being aware of his serious state of health, he did not give up alcohol and continued to work. He died on January 24, 1920, victim of tubercular meningitis. Amedeo Modigliani is represented in the most important art galleries around the world, such as the MoMA and the Guggenheim in New York, the Tate Gallery in London or the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, among many others.