Modigliani: Beyond the Myth
Art Gallery of Ontario
Oct. 23, 2004 - Jan. 23, 2005
March 3, 2005
The Art Gallery of Ontario recently put on an exhibit, Modigliani: Beyond the Myth (Modigliani
paintings). Toronto does not have a great permanent
collection of the masters. This scarcity means that one will be more
motivated to go when an opportunity arises. So I went.
The exhibit's title Beyond the Myth
seems somewhat inadequate. The myth, i.e. Modigliani's biography, is
that
he was from Tuscany and went to Paris to learn and practise art. This
was the Paris of Picasso and Braque. In Paris he lived an improvised
bohemian life. He was a struggling artist who was a womanizer and
drunkard. He was unable to sell his paintings. A kindly grocer accepted
them as barter! Modigliani died a pauper's death.
After his death, apparently almost immediately, his paintings began to
achieve good prices.
Modigliani has became an icon of modern art. This transformation seems
to me to be the most interesting part of his life. How is it that
an
obscure painter can achieve post mortem fame? The exhibit itself is a
testament to this transformation. Modigliani would have rebelled
against such an "institution" and it is ironic that his work becomes a
raison d'être for the "institution's" existence. Why do we
celebrate in
death, people who, when alive, we despise?
Is this simply economics? After his death the promoters took over.
Promoters have an understanding of what will
"sell" and it would appear that Modigliani's body of work had what it
took. What
was the catalyst for this transformation? The thinking of businessmen
and artists are so antagonistic that efforts to answer these questions
can not be made!
Possibly, of course, it is the painting. The reclining nudes are
clearly impressive. I look at the painting with an uneducated eye. What
I see is the distortion of perspective. The artist is trying to show
the 'true' rather than the apparent.
Does one have a better
understanding of Cocteau from his portrait ? I think so, since we are
forced to feel; to break away from a strictly analytical appraisal.
However, the eyes, with one left perfectly blank, and the repetitive
angular noses, seem to me to be less impressive. The artist is trying
too hard and these devises become affectations; an earnestness by the
artist to achieve the mystical which ultimately fails.
A couple of quibbles about the exhibit. There is an activity room in
the middle of the exhibit for kids. When I was there, a group of middle
school kids was busily 'creating'. This was very annoying to those that
came to see the exhibit.
This was an interesting and worthwhile exhibit. The unstated lesson of
the exhibit is that Artists of note live at the margins of society.
However, society needs these social outcasts to provide for innovation
and cultural evolution. Is this simply the chance of cultural
whim,
subtle economics, or the manifestation of some hidden subconscious
social dynamic? That is, what is beyond the myth? The questions remain
unanswered.