Head of A Woman
Amedeo Modigliani
AMEDEO MOGILIANI, 1912. LIMESTONE.
Modigliani was a resentful sculptor. He found the process arduous, expensive in both labour and finance and yet he considered himself, correctly, to be masterful in the medium. Having learnt the art of stone sculpture from Brancusi, perhaps the great modern master of the genre, Modigliani created around two dozen sculptures between 1909 and 1915, and then never again. They sit alongside his painted work beautifully, both reject Western notions of beauty and art, and instead look to Egypt, to Cycladic culture in the Agaen Sea, and to Africa and the masks long produced across the continent. Modigliani held these works dear to him, and they lived alongside him as functional pieces. According to a close friend, he would place candles upon their heads and in embrace them in drug-influenced stupors as well-loved companions.