Sunday, March 28, 2010

Day 9







In my early days of my new relationship, I took the Husband on a trip to my home town Dunedin, where we had the best time. We ate giant doorstop toasted sandwiches, we swam in the freezing water at St Clair beach, we went to the rugby at Carisbrook and drank Speights on the Terraces, we visited the tree where my mum's ashes are buried, and The Husband fell in love with my home. Now, Dunedin has a fabulous art gallery and we saw there was an exhibition of european artists on , so wandered in and hooked up with a tour that instead of discussing the 200 artworks on display, focused on 20 and in detail. It was abso-freakin-lutely amazing. We hung on every word. And one of our favourite artists was Modigliani.

So today, I'm going to find out more about him....
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani, (1884 - 1920) was an Italian artist working mainly in France. His style was painting and sculptures, with long mask like faces in a modern style. He suffered from tuberculosis throughout his life and resorted to alcohol and drugs because of this. He studied and painted landscapes but was best known for his portraitures and nudes. Although he churned out heaps of work and was hugely productive, he used whatever money he earned to buy drugs or in exchange for a meal. His only solo exhibition was shut down a few hours after opening by the police, scandalised by the nude images he displayed.

He died destitute and penniless from meningitus and is now buried in Pere Lachaise cemetary in Paris.
Are you loving his work too?

2 comments:

  1. Loving his work and liking the story behind it too. Personally my favourite is Picasso. saw Woman Weeping (or is it Weeping Woman?) in London and wept myself. Strange stuff but very moving.
    (tell me if I'm getting comment-tastic - or I guess you can just not 'ok' them!)

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  2. Wow you are doing good! Love the new look of the blog! and it has increased my learning!!

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