I love the subject matter, and his technique for some reason makes me feel a sense of happiness and a sadness, since many of his faces had empty black eyes. Modigliani developed a style that involved attention and abstraction of the human face and figure yet was able to represent a wide range of highly individualized posers. During the symposium, I learned one fun fact. Most of his early paintings, he was painting over canvases that had already been painted upon-sometimes canvases that had been painted on by a different artist even. But he often incorporated the underdrawings into his finished pieces. Of course, the artist himself was very handsome, and his own life lends itself to a Hollywood treatment. He came from a well-established Jewish family, with an academic education, moved to Paris in 1906, where he befriended Brancusi and Picasso, becoming part of the international circle of European expatriate artist. He cultivated a bohemian lifestyle, which included the consumption of a great deal of alcohol and drugs. It's believed he did this to either self-medicate, or cover the fact he had tuberculosis, which plagued him since childhood and what would eventually kill him at 35. A pregnant fiancée he was set to marry also flung herself from a fifth-floor window the day after his death only adds to the melodrama. No doubt, it was an enjoyable showing.
