News from The Modigliani Initiative

September 24, 2024

Fall Preview

Alice (detail), 1917. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. Exhibited at Modigliani’s only lifetime solo exhibition at Galerie B. Weill in 1917.

The Modigliani Initiative is gearing up for what promises to be an exciting fall for the artist. Once again, Modigliani’s work will feature in international exhibitions and now a new film will no doubt spur fresh curiosity among audiences that are not yet familiar with his life and work. Exciting new research updates and announcements also lie ahead for our Initiative; stay tuned for updates in our forthcoming newsletters.

Exhibition News

Make Way for Berthe Weill

George Kars, Portrait of Berthe Weill (detail), 1933. Private collection

The Grey Art Museum in New York will present Make Way for Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde (October 1, 2024–March 1, 2025), a long-overdue tribute to the pioneering Parisian art dealer. Berthe Weill (1865–1951) was one of the earliest supporters of Matisse and Picasso before they achieved acclaim, and famously, gave Modigliani his only lifetime solo show in 1917. Co-organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, the Grey Art Museum exhibition features over one hundred works of art, many of which were once shown at Weill’s gallery, and includes examples of Modigliani’s tantalizing nudes. For more information on the exhibition and the related illustrated catalogue, click here.

In case you missed it, in April 2023 the Modigliani Initiative offered a novel theory about which paintings by the artist were included in the 1917 show at Galerie B. Weill. Here is a link to the essay.

Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Miró

Portrait of a Man (André Derain), c. 1915. Musée de Grenoble

The Palazzo Zabarella in Padua, Italy, will be hosting Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Miró, celebrating masterpieces of drawing from the Musée de Grenoble. The show, which opens on October 5, and remains on view until January 12, 2025, includes Portrait of a Man, depicting Modigliani’s friend and fellow artist André Derain. More information can be found here.

Drawings from the Dr. Paul Alexandre Collection

Femme nue s’appuyant sur l’avant-bras gauche, c. 1910

A selection of Modigliani’s drawings from the Dr. Paul Alexandre collection are now on view through October 12 at gallery Beck & Eggeling in Düsseldorf, Germany. Between 1907 and 1914, Alexandre was one of the artist’s earliest supporters and collectors. More information on the show can be accessed here.

Technical Talk

Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz (shown with an X-ray of the canvas), 1916. Art Institute of Chicago

For those who happen to be in Chicago on October 26, the Art Institute is hosting Ghost Paintings—Discoveries from the Conservation Lab, a conversation between paintings conservators Allison Langley and Kim Muir about the ghost-like images that have been found beneath the surfaces of paintings in the museum’s collection, including Modigliani’s portrait of Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz. For more information and registration, click here.

Other News

Italian actor Riccardo Scamarcio stars as Amedeo Modigliani in Modi, Three Days on the Wings of Madness

The San Sebastian Film Festival will introduce Modi, Three Days on the Wings of Madness, a new film based on a fictionalized course of events during 72 hours in the life of the artist in 1916. Al Pacino stars as the art collector Maurice Gagnat. This is a curious inclusion as Gagnat was primarily known as an ardent collector of Renoir and has no documented connection to Modigliani or his work. More information on the film can be found here.

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Leslie Koot | Julie Martin | Julia May Boddewyn

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