modigliani

you know how people ask you what your favorite "x" is? favorite movie, book, band, song, etc. well i have a hard time with those questions. there are too many choices - too many things i love to just go and pick one as the head and shoulders favorite for a category. i always ask if we can narrow down the field... can i pick my favorite classical pianist - probably chopin although rach does rock my boat (pun most definitely intended). often times i don't get such latitude in my conversations.

fortunately my favorite painter (which isn't cutting up artist too much - it's hard to compare the different mediums if you ask me) is amadeo modigliani. and italian painted around the turn of the century. he died young (at the age of 35) which is a terrible shame because his work was really amazing!

artist's notes:

• he is known primarily for his portraits which often have a manneristic anatomy (especially the elongated neck)
  
• the subjects also often have a strong african tribal mask influence. as seen by the almond shaped eyes with no pupils and the long elliptical faces
• the faces are almost always tilted to the left or right (social psychology has a meaningful section on the passive signals of tilting - just do a google search for head tilt and psychology. there are still papers talking about it)
  
• the colors are often very muted natural tones (i.e. lots of brown shades)
• the painting stroke style, i think, resembles a cezanne-esque etching. especially for the backgrounds of paintings and his landscapes. but uses a more delicate line for figures with almost no texture to the stroke. (almost like an illustration at times)

ok i'm going to stop with this cause i'm having flashbacks of my art history papers from high school! although it was one of my favorite classes in high school, along with microeconomics. (let's not discuss how both art history and economics were my top two - clear it tells you i have some weird issues.)

in 2005, during one my very few days off as an ibanker, i flew to dc to visit my dear friend I and check out the largest US exhibit of modigliani works. there were around 90+ pieces which is a huge percentage of his works (remember he died young). it was a great exhibit, i remember I saying i was acting really weird, i was completely mesmerized and just trying to soak it all it. the pieces were on loan from many different museums and they were going to go aboard to europe and the opportunity to see them all again would be very difficult.