Through his work in sculpture, Modigliani had, by all accounts, come to dream of creating, what he called a ‘Temple of Beauty’. For him, his idealized figures were all component parts, (or building blocks, perhaps) of a vast and greater enterprise. Not only did Modigliani work strictly in series and conceive of his creations as, ultimately, a collective ensemble he also seems to have recognized and revered them as if they were sacred totems. It seems to me that these heads were exhibited later the same year in the Salon d'Automne, arranged in stepwise fashion like tubes of an organ to produce the special music he wanted.’ (12) I see him as if it were today, stooping over those heads, while he explained to me that he had conceived all of them as an ensemble. Around Modigliani, ‘a few heads in stone-maybe five-were standing on the cement floor of the court in front of the studio. Lipchitz recalled seeing Modigliani ‘working outdoors’, in order to avoid his own small studio, which was too cramped and, (with all the limestone dust flying around), also too hazardous for the artist’s already fragile health. (11) It was here, too, at the Cité Falguière, that Jacques Lipchitz was to first come across Modigliani’s stone heads. He intended these personages to be seen collectively as what he described as a ‘decorative ensemble’, and in 1912, seven of these works were presented in this manner as part of the Cubist room at the infamous Salon d’Automne held that year.īefore the Salon d’Automne exhibition, Modigliani is thought to have first exhibited his stone heads, again as a collective group, at an impromptu exhibition that he organized with Brancusi’s help in the studio of Amadeo de Souza Cardoso in March 1911.(10) Cardoso was one of many fellow sculptors then working, like Modigliani, at the Cité Falguière studios in Montparnasse. Tête is one of the series of predominantly either limestone or sandstone heads that Modigliani carved repeatedly during this period. (8) Between 19, he produced very few paintings but a vast number of drawings and gouaches, all related to sculpture and sculptural projects, and almost all his known sculpture. (7) By 1911, Modigliani had abandoned painting almost entirely and from then on until around 1914, sculpture became almost his sole practice. But, it was only after becoming close with Constantin Brancusi in Paris in 1909 that he began a practice of making his own carved sculptures, learning, under Brancusi’s direction, to carve, first into wood, and subsequently into stone. Modigliani had longed to be a sculptor ever since his first discovery of Michelangelo in his youth.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |