THE Tate Modern is opening an exhibition of the largest collection of Amadeo Modigliani’s work ever shown in the UK. Modigliani is known for his paintings, the show also includes his rarely seen experiments with sculpture.
Modigliani in his studio, photograph by Paul Guillaume, c.1915
©RMN-Grand Palais (musée de l’ Orangerie) I Archives Alain Bouret, image Dominique Couto
Amedeo Modigliani is an Italian artist who moved to Paris in his early 20s. The city and its cultural scene greatly influenced him – and this exhibition seeks to re-evaluate this well-known artist by exploring the experimentation and influences that shaped his career and also looking at the creative environments and popular culture that were central to his life and work. The show starts with his arrival in Paris, then charts the shifts in his work as he interacted with artists such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Cèzanne, and art dealers like Léopold Zborowski. The exhibition also reconsiders the women who influenced him and were present in his work and notes their independent importance in Paris’ cultural scene in the early twentieth century.
In addition to his paintings and other works, a first for the Tate, a virtual reality experience, is integrated into their exhibition through a collaboration with HTC Vive. The VR experience is seated and transports visitors into Modigliani’s final studio, which can be viewed from three different angles. Following six months of extensive research and mapping, the space and its 60 objects are brought to life. First-hand accounts by those close to the artist can be listened to while the visitor visually explores the studio.
Juan Gris, 1915, Oil paint on canvas, 549 x 381 mm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Woman’s Head (With Chignon), 1911-12, Sandstone, 572 x 219 x 235 mm. Merzbacher Kunststiftung
Glass attended the press view and we especially liked the attention the curators had given to providing a lot of detail about Modigliani’s movement around Paris, and later on to the South of France, and how each move affected who he interacted with, which, in turn, influenced and altered his working style. One room of the exhibition was dedicated to photographs and film footage of where he had lived which meant that you could really imagine Modigliani’s world – one marred by poverty, illness and sadness.
An interesting transformation in his work, which was very visually apparent, was when he moved to Nice during the First World War because of ill-health. These pieces involved bright colours, whereas some of his earlier works were extremely dark since deep brown tones are exclusively used.
Boy in Short Pants, c.1918, Oil paint on canvas, 997 x 648 mm.
Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Leland Fikes Foundation, Inc. 1977
Portrait of Paul Guillaume, Novo Pilota, 1915, Oil paint on card mounted on cradled plywood
1235 x 925 x 100 mm. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris. Collection Jean Walter et Paul Guillaume
Furthermore, I was very intrigued by the change in his approach to nudes between 1917 and 1919. His later ones are more abstract, more blurred than his earlier ones where every line on the model’s body are carefully documented.
Nude, 1917, Oil paint on canvas, 890 x 1460 mm. Private Collection
Reclining Nude, 1919. Oil on canvas, 724 x 1165 mm
Museum of Modern Art, New York
This curatorial commitment to transporting visitor’s in Modigliani’s life-story was furthered by the VR experience, which we thought was extremely cool and inventive! The VR experience plunges you into Modigliani’s final studio, a place where he felt his most comfortable to express himself through painting, but tragically is also where he completed his final painting before his death from meningitis in 1920. We really liked the inclusion of spoken quotes by those who knew Modigliani at the end of his life and the amazing way that some of the objects moved, such as flickering candles – this made the experience feel almost completely real. We would definitely recommending ensuring that you are able to get tickets for the VR before entering the exhibition.
It is a one-off experience that rounds-off the exhibition experience perfectly. The exhibition has been curated by Nancy Ireson, Curator of International Art, Tate Modern and Simonetta Fraquelli, Independent Curator, with Emma Lewis, Assistant Curator.
by Allie Nawrat
The Modigliani exhibition is open from November 23, 2017 to April 2, 2018
Tickets cost £19.70 for adults, children under 12 can enter for free
Tickets for the Virtual Reality part of the exhibition are issued every half an hour on a first come first served basis at the entrance to the exhibition. An at-home room scale version will also be available via VIVEPORT, HTC Vive’s app, from December
Modigliani exhibition, Level 3, Boiler House, Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1, United Kingdom
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.