The Unknown Modigliani: Drawings from the Collection of Paul Alexandre

Reproduces four-hundred-fifty drawings of nudes, caryatids, and theatre figures made between 1906 and 1914 by Modigliani

This stunning volume, an art-historical event, reproduces some 450 drawings by Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) never before published or exhibited. Including graceful female nudes, caryatids, portraits, impressions of the theater and circus, sculptural heads and studies for paintings, these drawings were made between 1906 and 1914, after the artist's move to Paris at the age of 22. In the best of them one sees flashes of Modigliani's mature style. French physician Paul Alexandre, Modigliani's friend and patron, bought the drawings and hoarded them for decades. His son, historian Noel Alexandre, provides a biographical sketch of Modigliani interwoven with his father's reminiscences, letters to and from the painter, photographs of the artist and his milieu, color reproductions of oil paintings, and a 10-page letter from Eugenia Modigliani, the artist's mother, filling in details of his youth in Livorno. This catalogue documents a globe-trotting exhibit that comes to the U.S. in 1995.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Paul Alexandre was a young doctor with a passion for art and the company of artists when Modigliani arrived in Paris in 1906 and the two men became close friends almost right off the bat. Alexandre zealously collected every Modigliani drawing he could get his hands on, always intending to publish them and write about his inspired friend, but he died without realizing this dream. Now Alexandre's son has made his father's stunning collection of 450 Modigliani drawings accessible for the first time, adding incalculably to our understanding of the artist's methods and aesthetic. Executed rapidly and with a natural grace and spontaneity, these highly sculptural and charmingly sensual studies of figures and faces are wonderfully intimate and revealing. Inspired by African and Khmer sculpture, Modigliani achieved a remarkable stylization, simplification, and purity of line and form. Alexandre has also made good use of selected papers and photographs of his father's, providing us with fresh insights into Modigliani's personality and social milieu. An exciting and illuminating volume. Donna Seaman