AMEDEO MODIGLIANIS LEGACY SPEAKS TO NEW YORKERS IN JEWISH MUSEUM

USPA NEWS - About 150 works of an interesting and original Italian - French artist of the first quarter of last century, with Jewish roots -- Amedeo Modigliani are on a public exposition at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan, New York.

The exhibition presents, as a part, early drawings done by Amedeo Modigliani, many of which are being shown in the United States for the first time. These works were acquired by the artist´s close friend and a patron “” Dr. Paul Alexandre. As the Jewish Museum states: ““¦these works illuminate Modigliani´s heritage as an Italian Sephardic Jew as pivotal to understanding his artistic output.“

A. Modigliani (1884 -1920) was born in Livorno, Italy and began to study painting in 1898 including Florence (1902) and Venice (until the winter of 1906) and then continued in Paris, where he came in 1906. Among his acquaintances and friends in Paris, there were: Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, Paul Alexandre.

The artist´s professional interests included drawing, sculpture, and painting. His private life was illuminated by light and tragedy. Not being well known outside of the Avant-Garde Parisian circle, Modigliani had seldom participated in official exhibitions. Fame came to Amedeo after his death in 1920, in Paris, with a solo exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in 1922 and a biography, written later on, by a poet Andre Salmon.
Now-days, Modigliani is considered as one of the most original and significant artists of his time.