Modigliani: The Primitivist Revolution. Exhibition catalog of the Albertina, Vienna 377743566X, 9783777435664

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The

Primitivist

Revolution Edited by Marc Restellini With aforeword by Klaus Albrecht Schroder and essays by Friedrich Teja Bach, Juliette Pozzo, and Marc Restellini

ALBERTINA

HIRMER

This exhibition is made possible through the support of the Musee National Picasso - Paris.

Foreword

Klaus Albrecht Schroder

6

Marc Restellini

11

Modigliani, Picasso - The Primitivist Revolution

Juliette Pozzo

31

Modigliani - Picasso: Two Visions of Primitivism

Friedrich Teja Bach

39

Brancusi and Modigliani CATALOG

Marc Restellini

55

77

99

The Birth of the Caryatid: The Simplification of the Subject Simplification Towards a Universal Model: The Load-Bearing Structure Expressive Intensity

121

The Body in Modigliani's Art

137

Neck and Nose: Their Influences

171

The Face and the Mask

193

Chronology

210

List of Exhibited Works

...

Foreword Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise. On this final journey, he was accompanied by his friends, the most renowned artists of Montmartre and Montparnasse: Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, Andre Derain, Max Jacob, Mo'ise On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Amedeo Modigliani's

Kisling, Jacques Lipchitz (who made the death mask of the deceased),

death, the Albertina commemorates this remarkable twentieth-century

Andre Salmon, Cha'im Soutine, and Maurice de Vlaminck. All of Montpar-

artist with an extensive exhibition. This is part of a series of exhibitions

nasse lamented the death of its "prince:' Not until 1930 were the remains

put on by the Albertina featuring pioneering artists of modernism. The

of Jeanne Hebuterne exhumed and laid to rest alongside Modigliani.

exhibition is again dedicated to an artist represented in the Albertina's collections with a major work: in this case the Female Semi-Nude from

historian and Modigliani expert Marc Restellini as curator of this exhibition.

the Batliner Collection (cat. 71), painted in 1918 during his exile in Nice.

The author of the soon-to-be published catalogue raisonne of Amedeo

The exhibition, which includes loans from three continents, was

Modigliani's paintings, he has contributed his exceptional expertise on

originally planned for the anniversary year of 2020. Like so many others,

the authenticity of the loaned works. And thanks to his close contacts

it had to be postponed for ayear due to the restrictions brought about by

with numerous important private collectors of Modigliani's rare works,

the COVID-19 pandemic. I am therefore all the more pleased that this

our exhibition has been generously supported by many private collectors

major exhibition dedicated to Amedeo Modigliani will take place at the

from around the world. His decades-long research on Modigliani's oeuvre

Albertina in autumn and winter 2021.

and experience curating some of the most significant exhibitions on this

My deepest gratitude thus goes to all the lenders, in particular the

artist in France, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, and Japan, has enabled him to

Stiftung Jonas Netter, the Paul Alexandre family (represented by Nathanson

contribute a very particular focus in terms of content to the project. In

Fine Art, London), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Mu-

this exhibition, Marc Restellini has situated Modigliani at the center of

seum of Modern Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the

what can be termed a"revolution of Primitivism;' placing him in a line

Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Musee National Picasso in Paris, and all

with the leading members of the Paris avant-garde, from Pablo Picasso

the other museums and private collectors who prefer to remain unnamed.

to Constantin Brancusi to Andre Derain. "Primitivism" here denotes astyle

In the midst of this crisis they have supported us, prepared the loans for

and an epoch, similar to the stylistic terms of"Classicism," "Impressionism;'

us, and provided the artworks now for the new exhibition dates.

or"Fauvism;' notwithstanding the fact that the high art of monarchies-

Modigliani was only thirty-five years old when he died in 1920 from tuberculous meningitis. He is counted among those famous artists who

6

It pleases me enormously that we could count on the French art

from the Khmer to the magnificent artworks of African kingdoms and tribes-provided the sources of inspiration for Western art.

met an untimely death, such as Raphael, who succumbed to the plague

When Modigliani arrived in Paris in 1906 as a young, academically

at thirty-seven; Schiele, felled by the Spanish flu at twenty-eight; or

trained painter, Picasso was there already, just beginning to supplant

Keith Haring, who died of AIDS at only thirty-two. Despite the brevity of

Fauvism and prepare the way for Cubism with his work Les Demoiselles

their lives, they all created extraordinary works of art and rank as great

d'Avignon. Modigliani moved in Picasso's circle at the Bateau-Lavoir on

pioneers.

Montmartre, even if the two solitary artists were not bound by close

Modigliani's early demise was, at the same time, a particularly

friendship or acommon agenda. Under the impact of the Paul Gauguin

tragic event: he died suddenly of consumption-the epidemic disease

retrospective at the Salon d'Automne in 1906, the Fauve painters Matisse,

of the nineteenth century-on January 24, 1920, in the Hopital de la

Vlaminck, and Derain were the first to become seriously interested in the

Charite in Paris. He was overcome unexpectedly, as he had several times

art of foreign cultures brought to Paris by colonialism and which had

before staved off this disease that afflicted him his entire short life. Jeanne

then already been displayed in Paris museums for over thirty years,

Hebuterne, who had a fourteen-month-old daughter with Modigliani,

ignored by contemporary artists. They found in the starkly expressive art

and who had been repudiated by her family for being an unmarried

objects what for them were the essential themes of life, handled with as-

mother, died two days later: she plunged to her death from her parents'

tonishing freedom, and yet had been shunned in Europe. This helped

apartment on the top floor of a building in the rue Amyot, behind the

them address the question of meaning in their own artistic activity, lib-

Pantheon in Paris, when she was eight months pregnant with her and

erating them from the centuries-old principles of the illusionistic repre-

Modigliani's second child. One day later Modigliani was buried at the

sentation of nature. Picasso initially was inspired by prehistoric Iberian

sculpture, before turning to African tribal art, encouraged by Matisse.

tion; instead, it depicts him as a leading avant-garde artist, laboring to

Stimulated by non-European sculpture, Derain began to work in stone in

overcome traditional academic norms through Primitivism.

March 1906; he was followed in this in 1907 by Constantin Brancusi, then

I am profoundly grateful to the numerous lenders, public museums

in 1909 by Modigliani, who drew inspiration from archaic Greek, Egyptian,

as well as private collectors, who have backed our exhibition with great

African, and East Asian art. Each of these artists sought and admired in

interest, have encouraged us in these difficult times, and now for the du-

these different ancient cultures the simplifying of forms, their abstraction

ration of our exhibition have generously handed over their important

and stylization. While from 1909 on Picasso dedicated himself to the evo-

works.

lution of Cubism, Modigliani remained loyal to Primitivism until his early death in January 1920. The visitor to the exhibition can trace the development of the oeuvre of this poignant outsider and artistic lone wolf through more than eighty

My immeasurable gratitude goes again to the exhibition's curator, Marc Restellini. Without his expert advice on the design of the exhibition concept and his indispensable contacts with numerous private lenders, the exhibition would not have been possible in thismanner.

of his works: from the early sculptural work to the "Cubist" portraits of his

My special thanks go to the authors Juliette Pozzo, head of the col-

friends at the Ecole de Parisand of Parisian society-ranging from maid

lection and curator of Pablo Picasso's personal collection at the Musee

to art collector-to the Madonna-like, anonymous female portraits al-

National Picasso in Paris, and professor Dr. Friedrich Teja Bach, editor of

luding to the Italian Gothic and Renaissance, the erotic nudes surrounded

the catalogue raisonne of Constantin Brancusi published in 1987. Despite

by scandal, and the "classicist" late works created during his exile in Nice.

difficult circumstances during the pandemic, they contributed first-rate

Modigliani's oeuvre is contrasted with works by Picasso, Brancusi, and De-

essays on Modigliani's relationships with Picasso and with Brancusi re-

rain, as well as with some examples of non-European and archaic art that

spectively.

the artist could admire in the Paris museums at the time. The influences

At the Albertina the exhibition has been managed by assistant cu-

of art from the most varied world cultures can be identified in Modigliani's

rator Gunhild Bauer. My deepest thanks go to her. Kristin Jedlicka from

oeuvre, art that as a young artist freshly arrived in the art metropolis of

exhibition management deserves many thanks for her professional han-

Paris he was able to study in the Louvre and in the ethnographic museum

dling of the loans and the installation of the exhibition, as do the many

at the Trocadero and whose formal reduction to the essential made such

workers behind the scenes in the departments of conservation, press,

an impact on him. The exhibition thus corrects the conception of the

graphics, and art education. I would particularly like to thank the architect

painter Modigliani as a popular yet moderate artist, committed to the

Martin Kohlbauer, who developed avery unusual and convincing design

ideal of beauty of Italian painting, marked by alcohol and drug consump-

for the complex contextualization of Modigliani'sworks. Prof. Dr. Klaus Albrecht Schroder Director General, The Albertina Museum, Vienna

9

MODIGLIANI. PICASSO The Primitivist Revolution The Centenary of an Avant-Garde Artist

Marc Restellini

reliable, they have been embellished with anecdotes of doubtful accuracy. On the other hand, "apocryphal" sources, often fanciful or romanticized, have brought further grist to the mill of the artist's "legend."1 It is true that the man remains amystery. His writings-his letters in particular-reveal his erudition and profound thinking, while including

Feted by the public at large, the works of Modigliani today figure promi-

ideas that are sometimes incomprehensible. The predominant image is

nently in prestigious collections and in flagship museums worldwide. He

of a man "resurrected;' whose "total dedication [was] to the supreme vo-

remains one of the most sought-after artists on the market, despite ever-

cation that drives him compulsively to paint:'2

more dizzying prices at auction. Although still viewed condescendingly

There is no doubt that Modigliani'swritings can appear surprising,

in academic circles-notably because of the myth of the artiste maudit,

and they clash with asuperficial understanding of the artist, which, based

the artist as cursed and alienated-Modigliani is today hailed as amajor

on photographs, envision him as a mix of distinction and charm, as de-

master. Gathering together an impressive number of his paintings, this

scribed by Lunia Czechowska 3 when they met:

exhibition marking the centenary of his death is held in one of the world's

"In June 1916, Zbo took me to an exhibition of Modigliani's work on

most renowned museums. For the past twenty years or so, there has

rue Huyghens. Coming out, we went to the terrace of the Rotonde with

been asteady stream of spectacular Modigliani retrospectives in institu-

some painter friends. I can still see, crossing the boulevard Montparnasse,

tions around the globe. Since the Paul Guillaume exhibition at the Or-

a very handsome boy wearing a black felt hat, velvet suit, and red scarf;

angerie in Paris in 1993, his work has more and more been put on display,

pencils stuck out of his pockets and he was carrying an enormous drawing

to international acclaim. Between 1993 and 1996, Noel Alexandre, son of

portfolio under his arm. It was Modigliani. He came and sat next to me. I

the collector Paul Alexandre, had his impressive collection of Modigliani

was struck by his distinction, his radiance and the beauty of his eyes. He

drawings exhibited internationally. In 2002, together with a notable aca-

was at once very simple and very noble. How different he was from the

demic committee, I myself organized asubstantial exhibition, Modigliani:

others in his smallest gestures, down to the way he shook your hand ....

L'ange au visage grave, at the Mu see du Luxembourg in Paris. This placed

He had superb hands, very assured in drawing:'4

the artist, who had not yet been counted among the great modernist

In 1924, concerned to leave afaithful testimony of her son'slife, Eu-

painters, on a par with Matisse and Picasso. Almost twenty years later,

genie Garsin, with the help of her daughter Margherita, sent Paul Alexan-

Picasso and Modigliani now share the limelight at the Albertina.

dre some "biographical notes"5 retracing the artist's childhood and ado-

Now that his work is widely appreciated, it is important to recall

lescence. These notes inform us that Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was

Modigliani'srole in the primitivist revolution that shook the foundations

born on July 12, 1884, as the fourth child and last son of Flaminio Modigliani

of modern art in the early twentieth century. With his caryatids and the

and Eugenie Garsin, a descendant of "two families [with] distinctive,

Greek, African, Khmer, and Oceanian influences in his painting, Modigliani

rather strong features, both Italian and Jewish:'6

must undoubtedly be seen as an artist of the avant-garde, and his oeuvre

"The Modiglianis had come from Rome to Livorno some fifty years

can be compared to those of Picasso, Derain, and Matisse. Recent studies

earlier, and were almost all tall, well built, with good posture, enjoying

have placed his relationship with his peers in anew light, and he now ap-

excellent health, unmarked by any hereditary defects, of phlegmatic tem-

pears more often as a source of inspiration than as a disciple or epigone.

peraments, more inclined to enjoy life than to strain their intellects,

Too often portrayed as a mere follower, Modigliani may well be one of

though they were sharp enough .... The Garsins, who originally came

the most accomplished of primitivist painters, one whose work under

from Livorno but had settled in Marseille for almost a hundred years,

this aegis lasted longer and advanced further than that of his contempo-

showed very different physical and intellectual traits: less tall and less

raries.

well-built, almost all with dark hair and very alert, expressive, changeable

But who was Modigliani? To answer this question today seems, at

faces. There had been afew cases of tuberculosis (and of lengthy resistance

first sight, simply impossible. On the one hand, though authentic sources

to the illness) among their ancestors, some liver disease and some psy-

from the artist's contemporaries-based on direct testimony-seem

chological disorders:'7 11

Ruined at about the same time and living ahand-to-mouth existence,

the hotel consider him as a grown man. A light curly growth of beard

the members of the two families shared ahouse. In an"austere atmosphere

added charm to his already expressive face. An English traveller said to

8

of work and self-denial;' Dedo-the nickname the family gave to the

him one day: 'You must paint with intuition, imagination and concentra-

youngest child-spent the first ten years of his life in a protected world,

tion:'lt's all on the programme,' Dedo replied.'I shall keep to it." 117

with little social interaction. Sensing that his health was delicate-he

The painter was undoubtedly just being courteous, as he already

endured several bouts of pleurisy in early childhood- his moth.er refused

had avery high opinion of what an artist and his art should be, as shown

to send him to primary school. "Docile, precociously intelligent, and pen-

by what he wrote to his friend Oscar Ghiglia in 1901:

sive;'9 the child whiled away his days among books, his mind nourished

"As for us, we have different rights from normal people, because

by the conversation of the adults among whom he lived. Learning poetry

we have different needs that place us above-this must be said and be-

(Dante in particular), he engaged in lengthy discussions with his grandfather,

lieved-their morality. Your duty is never to burn yourself up in sacrifice.

Isaac Garsin, "a man ... highly intelligent, and possessed of great integrity

Your true duty is to keep your dream alive .. .. The man who does not

0

and strong principles;,, who claimed to be a descendant of Spinoza and 11

"loved philosophical speculation:' From that point on, the child "would

individuals-destined to gain strength, to constantly demolish anything

scribble in pencil or with afew coloured crayons anything he could lay his

standing that is old or rotten-is not a man, he is a bourgeois, agrocer,

12

hands on:' "Then, when he was nearly eleven, he started attending the

whatever you like ... Acquire the habit of putting your demands as an

ginnasio [junior high school). He studied classics, though without much

artist above your duties towards men.',,8

enthusiasm, until 1898, when he moved on to the liceo [high school]:'13 At the age of fourteen Amedeo contracted typhoid fever: "For several weeks he hovered between life and death and he was

After Naples, Torre del Greco, and Capri, mother and son returned to Livorno for afew days, and then Modigliani left on his own, no longer

delirious for more than a month. It was during this delirium that Dedo

able to bear "the family routine, the complete absence of any artistic circle:,,9After a few months in Florence, he then left for Rome to spend

said he wanted to study painting. He had never spoken before of this

the winter there, later returning to Florence where he contracted scarlet

and probably believed it was an impossible dream .. .. Although for a

fever. When Uncle Amedeo, who supported him financially, died, the

fourteen year old, he already had a strong, determined personality... .

family"continued to do their best to satisfy Dedo'sdesire to leave Livorno

[H]is sensitive and proud nature also led him to conceal his most intimate

and live in an art metropolis:'20 After a stay in Venice, the artist decided

feelings. It was the long feverish delirium that finally allowed him to

to go to Paris.

speak out. He spoke continually of pictures seen in reproduction .. .. He

This was in 1906, when Modigliani was twenty-two. His portrait is

spoke of one of his nightmares: he missed the train that was supposed to

aglowing one: well-educated, strikingly handsome, aristocratic looking,

take him to Florence to visit the Uffizi Gallery.. .. [H]is mother, who was

uncommonly elegant, a young man exceptionally well up in literature

nursing him, decided she had to satisfy him whatever the cost. One day,

and philosophy. The ill health he had suffered only accentuated the im-

when he was still in the grip of fever and delirium, she clasped his hands

pression of his being exceptional and explains the fascination he was to

and tried to hold his attention. She made him this solemn promise:'When

exert first on his friends and then on his partner, Jeanne Hebuterne.

you are cured, I shall seek out a drawing master for you."'14

Let us turn to some eyewitnesses. First of all, Paul Alexandre, his

While convalescing, Modigliani attended the studio of the Livorno

earliest patron and also a friend.21 "The man was as attractive as his

painter Guglielmo Micheli, where he struck up a friendship with Oscar

works."22 "Although short, he was under five foot three inches, he was

Ghiglia. Lapsing into a bohemian lifestyle, he explored tobacco, women,

very handsome and had great success with women:'23 "He was a born

and above all spiritualism. Like two other students at the studio, who

aristocrat. He had the style and all the tastes:'24 Then Lunia Czechowska:

died shortly afterwards, he also contracted tuberculosis. By September

"Modigliani could only see what was beautiful and pure. I never saw him

1900, the doctors were saying that he too was condemned. This though was not the opinion of Eugenie Garsin: with financial assistance from her brother Amedee Garsin, whose business in Marseille was beginning to

experience jealousy for anyone: I never heard him make aspiteful remark:' "Modigliani had been very well brought up and this showed in spite of his disorderly life:'25 Paul Alexandre adds: "He was truly generous, with

prosper, she took her son away from Livorno. Mother and son set out for

no trace of envy or disparagement of his contemporaries, even though

awhole year,15 Dedo visiting museums and art galleries, Eugenie seeking

they themselves would not bother to look at his work."26

out atmospheric conditions that might cure him.16

12

know how to draw from his own energy new desires and almost new

But his friends also felt his strong personality and his highly exacting

The artist's personality was by now fixed :

ideas about his art. "A very gentle character, he could have extremely

"Already, his slightly haughty air, his rather cold manner, his ability

violent quarrels."27 "[O]f all the romanticized studies written about

to talk intelligently on a wide range of matters, made the few guests in

Modigliani, none has captured his soul or his true personality. I [Lunia

Czechowska] knew him as different from the image they give ... beneath

different from and even superior to other people-as betrayed by the

his bohemian exterior Modigliani concealed treasures only his friends

quotation from D'Annunzio that recurs inthe artist's production, and was

could see. He was a true artist: the common run cannot grasp or under-

even written on his drawings: "Life is a Gift: from the few to the many:

28

stand these beings apart whose soul is racked by torment:' For Paul

from Those who Know and possess to those who neither Know nor pos-

Alexandre: "Modigliani had ataste for danger. He thought that one should

sess."J6 Naturally, such a feeling of superiority could be explained by

not be afraid to risk one's life in order to expand it away. Utterly despising

Modigliani's early confrontation with illness and even death-the Reaper

29

mediocrity, he had pretentions to royal privilege:' "[H]e had an exclusive

had risen before him, but he escaped. This incomparable experience nec-

passion for his art. There was no question of turning aside even for a mo-

essarily left him with a vision of life that was completely different from

ment from his life's work to undertake what were in his eyes menial

that of other people-all those who had not shared it. This was then ex-

tasks:' "He already had a deep-rooted confidence in his own work. He

acerbated by his hypersensitivity as an artist and by the poetry he read.37

knew that he was an innovator rather than a follower:'Jo "Why couldn't

Avision was to haunt him for the rest of his life, as we see in the last mes-

Modigliani do as his friends did? The answer is simply that his view of

sage he wrote to Paul Alexandre on May 6, 1913:

art was too elevated, and nothing in the world would persuade him to

"Flatterer and friend.

1

prostitute it:'J

Happiness is an angel with aserious face. The resurrected:'J8

Modigliani thus exhibited an uncompromising elitism, preferring to "starve to death" than accept Jean Alexandre'soffer to draw for L'assiette

How should such lines be interpreted? The image of bliss materialized

au beurre, a satirical magazine that allowed talented draftsmen to earn

by asad angel- is it not the death from which he, the risen one, returned?

what was at the time a comfortable income. In the artist's eyes, no con-

Naturally, for someone "resurrected,"the encounter with the Beyond and

cession that might degrade his art could be tolerated. This tendency may

the world of death can only be asource of fascination. It lends anew per-

also explain the violent outbursts to which Modigliani was subject, ex-

spective to his writings-with their enigmatic annotations, their deeply

plosions that contributed to his reputation as a violent individual, due,

mysterious meaning or even total lack of any meaning, their mix of mys-

as legend had it, to alcohol and drugs. Lunia Czechowska argues that

ticism, metaphysics, Kabala, alchemy, and spiritualism.J9 He believed

these fits stemmed rather from the lack of understanding he felt in the

himself to be in the thrall of higher, external forces he could not control:

world around him, as illustrated by the following story. One day, in spite

"I myself am the plaything of very powerful energies that are born and

of the artist'sexpress prohibition, Leopold Zborowski, unable to overcome

die."40

his curiosity to see a girl who had come to pose naked, burst into

But Modigliani was aware above all that his art bears a message.

Modigliani'sstudio while he was painting Blonde Nude.The enraged artist

Perhaps he saw himself as ademi urge. Survage records Modigliani as de-

experienced this as a profound drama, as a"violation of ashrine."J2

claring, "We are building a new world using forms and colors, but it is

Modigliani's vision of art could be seen as political or social. In light of Modigliani's own words, as reported by Leopold Survage a decade later, this may indeed seem likely:

thought that is the lord of this new world." 41 The entire correspondence with Oscar Ghiglia seems to confirm this: "I am moreover trying to articulate as lucidly as possible the divers

"I am neither worker nor boss. The artist must be free, without

truths about art and life I have garnered from the beauties of Rome; and,

bonds. An exceptional life. The only normal life, it's the peasant, the

as the links between them surface in my mind, I will try to reveal them

farmer, who leads it ... neither boss nor worker, but master of his own

and to reconstitute their construction-I could almost say, their meta-

powers .. . we are one world, the bourgeoisie is another world-far from us."JJ

physical architecture-in an effort to create my truth about life, beauty and art:'42

The sociopolitical hypothesis, however, has not been proved.

"I cannot keep a diary ... because I believe that the innermost

Modigliani seems never to have been receptive to such questions. It is

events of the soul cannot be translated while we remain in their thrall.

even on recordJ4 that the artist did not share the political views of his

Why write when you're feeling? Believe me, only the work at its fullest

brother, Emmanuel, an adept of the Socialist movements current in Italy

stage of gestation, which has taken shape and freed itself from the

in 1898 who was sentenced to six months in prison by a military court.

shackles of all the contingent incidents that helped fecundate and produce

This conception of art, as well as a certain elitism that Modigliani

it, only this work is worth expressing and translating through style ....

propounded to his friend Ghiglia as early as 1901, thus stemmed from a

Every great work of art ought to be viewed like any other work of nature.

personal philosophy founded firstly on the artist'sfeeling of superiority

Firstly, in its aesthetic reality; then from outside, in its development and

as a man, and secondly on the value of his art and the role this should

in the mysteries of its creation, in what motivated and moved its creator.

play in artistic creation.J5 There is no doubt that he was a man who felt

This though is pure dogmatism:'4J 13

The Museum at the Trocadero: ACatalyst?

Fig.11 The Pala is du Trocadero, Paris, before1914

While these thoughts were surely intended to be clear to his friend

"Housed in apalace built for aquite different purpose, dark and unheated,

Ghiglia, the uninformed reader may find it difficult to follow and take

fitted with improvised showcases inadequately protected against dust,

refuge behind the reassuring notion that all this is just artists' chatter.

humidity and insects, with no handling rooms, no workrooms, no store-

But the poetic and philosophical form of Modigliani's words-a form he

rooms, no laboratories, no collection files, the Museum felt more like a

handles with undeniable brio-as well as his phraseology foster amore

'junk shop' in which valuable objects piled up in unlit cupboards stood

44

unremarked by visitors. Labeling was virtually non-existent. Geographical

So this is how he finally appears: a"metaphysical-spiritual" intel-

maps showing object distribution, essential for visitors to understand

lectual, prey to mystical tendencies. It has to be said: this is afar cry from

the artifacts' origins, were non-existent. More importantly, perishable

the traditional image of the painter, which has been rehashed for almost

objects (made of wood, wool, cotton, feathers, etc.) were exposed to de-

a hundred years. Behind the legend of the only artiste maudit of the

struction. Asore lack of warders made security impossible or at least illu-

twentieth century, there stands a visionary artist, possessed-like Pi-

sory. There was no protection against fire or theft.The library, with neither

casso-of aphilosophical conception of art that was extremely advanced

librarian nor catalogue, was, despite its riches, practically unusable."45

poetic and more persuasive reading of these emotionally charged letters.

and innovative. Two visionaries, then, confronted by a similar shock: received in an extraordinary museum of ethnography.

Such is the depressing sketch of the Mu see d'Ethnographiedu Trocadero made by Georges-Henri Riviere and Paul Rivet after they visited it in 1928, the year Rivet took over as its head. In light of such adescription,

14

is"museum" even the right word?What was museum-like in these rooms

and an absence of signage, a visit to the Musee d'Ethnographie du Tro-

in the Palais du Trocadero (fig.1) at that time? Both collections and pres-

cadero at the beginning of the twentieth century was closer to an exotic

entation seemed outdated. The dimly lit display cases offered the im-

expedition or a disturbing experience than an agreeable stroll among

pression of aheap of war trophies, the weapons fanning out, the panoplies

display cases containing exhibits. The state of the museum at that time

and other artifacts arranged so as to presentthe"savagery" of the peoples

needs to be taken into account when analyzing the influence of primitivism

who had made them. The whole enterprise was accompanied by implicit

on those artists who visited it. Picasso's account is symptomatic. In 1907, he stumbled upon the

colonial propaganda that asserted the superiority of the modern Western 46

world over uncivilized populations from elsewhere.

Thus, there was no avoiding the fact that the Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero more resembled a"dark cave;' a"shambles;' or even a"dusty

museum "by chance;' as he says-although it seems to have been at Derain'sinstigation-experiencing fascination, fear, and repugnance all at once:

47

mausoleum" than the hallowed ethnographic museum dreamed of in

"When I went to the Trocadero, it was disgusting. A flea market.

1878 by its founder, the anthropologist Ernest Hamy. By the turn of the

The stench. I was all alone. I wanted to get out. I didn't leave. I stayed. I

century, its shortcomings in terms of museography were glaring, and

understood it was really important: surely something was happening to

into the 1930s visitors could gaze at collections languishing in a phantas-

me.... I understood why I was apainter. All alone in this dreadful museum,

magorical, near mystical atmosphere. The scarce photographs of the mu-

with masks, redskin dolls, dusty mannequins."48

seum from that time confirm the reports offered by the occasional visitors. Piled high in serried ranks of display cases (fig. 2), masks, weapons,

Later, one of his partners, Fran~oise Gilot, recorded another version:

totems, and figurines are arranged in large, spectacular compositions

"I wanted to get out fast, but I stayed and studied. Men had made

(figs. 3, 4), or else enthroned in the center of the rooms to catch the eye

these masks and other objects for asacred purpose, a magicpurpose, as

of the aficionado (fig. 5). In accordance with the museographic norms of

akind of mediation between themselves and the unknown hostile forces

the era, the storerooms occupied only a negligible part of the museum's total space, the principle being to display almost every object and series for study, subjecting them to some preconceived scientific classification. With unsatisfactory lighting, pungent woods and fabrics, echoing halls,

Fig. 21 The Americas department at the Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero, Paris, ca.1880-89

15

Fig. 3J Thepresentationof objects fromOceaniain the Museed'Ethnograph ie du Trocadero, Paris, ea. 1895

Together with the Khmer works discovered on the site of Angkor, the museum displayed above all large casts the explorer made at the temples during his missions in Indochina in the 1870s. The center of the

that surrounded them, in order to overcome their fear and horror by

gallery was occupied by an imposing cast some 15 meters tall of one of

giving it a form and an image. At that moment, I realized that this was

the multifaced towers from the Bayon temple at Angkor Thom (fig. 6).

what painting was all about. Painting is not an aesthetic operation; it'sa

Another major item was the striking balustrade from the Preah Khan

form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange, hostile uni-

temple representing the nine-headed serpent deity Naga carried forth

verse and us, a way of seizing power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires.''49

by three gods with many arms (fig. 7). Already impressive enough, the original works 51 were embellished with casts that conveyed an impression

Though there is no such oral testimony for Modigliani, the impact mentions visits made by the artist and of the influences he seems to

Along with the Musee d'Ethnographie, where objects and models were composed to form a"picturesque"53 atmosphere, and the Musee ln-

have absorbed there. Modigliani, however, was more attracted by the

dochinois, where the casts played their part in canonizing its "eternal ru-

of the museum on his painting is on record. Several times Paul Alexandre

16

of East Asia as a land of long-lost civilizations.52

west wing of the Pala is du Trocadero, occupied by the Mu see lndochinois,

ins;'54 the Pala is du Trocadero became amajor focus of primitivist inspira-

inaugurated by the explorer Louis Delaporte in 1882. Paul Alexandre re-

tion. This role was all the more crucial in Paris since the displays in better

marks: "It was Modigliani who introduced me to African art, and not the

organized and financed ethnographic museums elsewhere in Europein Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, and Switzerland55-

reverse. He took me to the Trocadero Museum, where he was in fact more

were far less unsatisfactory. Derain's experience at the British Museum

fascinated by the Angkor exhibition in the west wing. For myself, I have

bears witness to this: the artist was much more impressed by the works

never owned an item of either Cambodian or African art and I am not a connoisseur.'' 50

and their abundance than by the oddness of the venue. In 1906, he wrote to Matisse:"(! have seen] piled up, seemingly at random, get this, Chinese,

the Negroes [sic] of New Guinea, New Zealand, Hawaii, the Congo, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Etruscans, Phidias, the Romans, the lndies:'56 The Paris museum betrayed above all how far France lagged behind its European and American counterparts in this respect. Whereas other European cities-both major and smaller ones-had already established ethnographic museums in the 1830s or 1840s, in Paris the museum did not open until 1878, on the occasion of a World's Fair, and then only thanks to Ernest Hamy's tireless efforts at convincing the government of the importance of such an institution. Its rooms, which were meant to appear modern and take their inspiration from the most educationally progressive institutions in the field-the fruit of the universalism to which nineteenth-century European museums aspired by preserving objects from foreign lands57-ultimately fell in with the norms of colonial policy and aclassification by continent. From the 1890s, the Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero seemed to have become frozen in time, unable to adapt to the new forms of museography characterizing other ethnographic museums in Europe. Its

Fig. 5IDesire Mathieu Quesnel, World Exposition - The Chief of the Kanaks at the Ethnographic Exhibition in the Palais du Trocadero, 1878 Woodcut, 34.5 x 25.4 cm, Musee Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris

inertia contrasted strikingly with the effervescence bubbling through the art world and museums generally. The Trocadero as an institution seemed left behind by the growing curiosity in the "remote arts"58 then instrumental in widening the remit of the museum-already sorely stretched by the extension of the field of art-thus ceding an ever-growing role to private galleries, which were busy overturning the barriers demarcating the artwork from the ethnographic object. By around 1905, when the primitivists began visiting it, the Trocadero seemed even more outdated. In the United States, students of the famous anthropologist Franz Boas, then curator of the American Museum of Natural History, were devising new ways of understanding "primitive" art. On the other side of the Atlantic, the trend was no longer to collect objects, viewed as an oldfashioned and degrading concept that confined the"primitives" and their works to an archaic stage of human development, in contrast with civilizations that, one might say, allowed the constitution of collections of "readily transportable objects:'59 Thus, by the dawn of the artistic revolution Fig. 41 Display case with masks from New Caledonia, Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero, Paris, ca.1880-1926

in modern painting, the museum in the Trocadero resembled atime capsule-a hodgepodge of mid-nineteenth-century bromides bathed in an 17

Fig. 6 I Plaster cast of atower of the Bayon Temple, Angkor Thom, Musee lndochinois du Trocadero, Paris, ca.1900 Fig. 71Frederick Moller, World Exposition - Exhibition Halls of the Trocadero. The Cambodian Giant and the Many-Headed Snake that M. Delaporte Brought Back, 1878 Woodcut, 35 x 25.4 cm, Musee Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris

therefore all the more important since its visitors were primarily enthusiasts and experts, passing travelers, and, above all, artists in search of inspiration. As Europeans and Americans felt themselves more open to "primitive" art, museums of ethnography were tasked with offering an initial, almost visual, or even sensual definition of this art. The highly specific museography of such institutions was based on various ways of exhibiting the "objects by uncivilized peoples." The pre-

ambience almost unimaginable today. Whereas, for half a century, the

historian Felix Regnault pictured such objects as reliable documents pro-

quantity of narratives of exploration and anthropology treatises had been

viding relevant information on the "mores and mentality of a people:'61

increasing steadily, as a social class primitivist artists tended to eschew

Amuseum of ethnography was thus characterized by the motivation to

what were costly publications containing complex, rarely reader-friendly

exhibit artifacts accorded a"documentary status that would offset the

analyses, virtually confined to the then exclusive world of the library.

absence of writing among primitive peoples," in accordance with the

Comments accompanying the occasional illustration of an object in the

theory that such objects are the material transcription of imperatives of

so-called "popular" press were invariably pejorative and condescending,

biology or custom. In other words, parallel to racist definitions of the

60

the productions of "primitives" being judged pitiful or scandalous. The

"primitive" as an individual inferior to the members of a modern society,

Trocadero therefore was the perfect place for artists of modest means to

museums such as the Trocadero instilled in artists searching for inspiration

encounter non-European art.

and aesthetic intensity the idea that ethnographic objects by"primitives"

The very existence of this institution in the capital would justify ex-

serve to transmit messages that compensate for their lack of writing. 62

amining the transformations sparked by the primitivist revolution from

Perhaps the definition of"Primitivism"-or one of them at least-might

the point of view of Parisian artists alone, contrary to the precepts of in-

have arisen from just this perception.

ternational art history, which tends to study European primitivism, especially French and German, as awhole. The influence of the Trocadero was 18

Primitivisms and the Primitivist Revolution

"primitivism" for the arts of Africa and Oceania, then defined by the adjective "tribal;'65 dates only from the 1920s or 1930s. The underlying principles of primitivism appeared in two main stages: Robert Goldwater's

Incontestably, due to the miscellaneous definitions, significations, and

1938 study Primitivism in Modern Painting, 66 the first book on the subject,

characteristics it has accumulated, a notion such as "Primitivism" can no

and William Rubin's exhibition "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art at the

longer be used in the singular today. It has even tended to disappear al-

Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1984 along with the critical writing

together: under the pretext of forestalling unfortunate innuendos and

it subsequently stirred up.

generalizations from another age, it is being replaced here and there by

In 1938, the art historian Robert Goldwater published a ground-

other, supposedly less debatable terms. The preference is now for words

breaking text for the historiography of primitivism that is still studied

63

such as"remote" or"other lands;' expressions like"a vision of" an external

today for its analysis of aesthetics and art. Goldwater's stance was, however,

community of individuals, diplomatically identified as "other" and preceded

purely formalist, and took no account of the historical, social, and cultural

by positive adjectives relating to their past, history, or culture.

issues embedded in any relationship to the "primitive:' For Goldwater,

For the term "Primitivism" is inseparable from the notion of the

primitivism is predicated on the quest for emotional expressivity: artists

"primitive"-a word that Western observers must not use anymore unless

embarked on a project to distil I purely optical qualities so as to create ab-

in scare quotes, freighted as it is with connotations, racism, and prejudice,

solute images, free of all reference to reality, and expressive of the intensity

referring to an "Other;'whose chief characteristics were, on the one hand,

of the (immediate) effect. 67 Simplification is achieved through techniques

intellectual, moral, and civilizational decadence, and, on the other, op-

imitative of nature and in dramatic themes focusing on the "fundamental

position to developed, modern Western normality. "Modern" art-the

passions of existence."68 Paring the subject down to its essentials meant

art of this very modernity-had had recourse to art forms seen as archaic,

confronting viewers with immediate presentation in ararefied space where

ancient, or traditional, or as breaking with the contemporary aestheticism.

only the"symbolic" quality of the figures subsists. Figures are amechanism

To refer to such objects, those coming from (an) "elsewhere;' people spoke of "primitive art" or, in France, of art negre. As the twentieth century pro-

for intensifying images and reducing to a minimum the psychic distance

gressed, the words chosen sought to expunge the social and cultural hi-

figure dominating the whole work, the eye is drawn to the fundamentals.69

erarchy implicit in such terms, though the point of view was always that

The advent of the primitivist style thus has links with the invention of

of the West: the "primitive arts" simply became the"primal arts" and then

new methods of simplifying images-hence the burst of interest in non-

"non-European art:'The more usual subdivisions today are by geographical

European art in the period 1903-6 and up to World War One.

between artwork and beholder. Presented with a single action, a single

region or period; thus we speak of the "arts of Africa, Oceania, Asia, and

For Goldwater, what was then called art negre reflected a current

the Americas;' or of"traditional African art" for pieces dating from before

of thought in this new strand of aesthetic research. His findings were

the twentieth century from sub-Saharan Africa.

based on Carl Einstein's 1915 book Negerplastik, generally accepted as the

The notion of"Primitivism" is employed today to refer to a range of

first study to draw the attention of Europeans to the arts of Africa. One of

influences-generally between the mid-nineteenth century and the

Einstein'smain ideas centered on the decipherment of space: the illusory

post-World War Two period-of these so-called "primitive" societies on

three-dimensionality of painting and sculpture creates a fiction that ob-

those so-called "modern:' One of the most important of these influences

scures the authentic emotional awareness of the work. Contrariwise,

occurred in the world of art; hence "Primitivism" has also appeared to de-

African sculpture embodies pure form, free from plastic illusion and al-

note an episode in art history. Primitivism is not, however, an artistic

lowing for the creation of a mental space where such a form appears.70

movement, nor a current of thought, nor a form of philosophy whose

Cubist painting no longer constructs a space for the viewer; it offers a

borders are difficult to draw, nor even a media characteristic of certain

multiplicity of points of view that give rise to anew construction of space

works of art. Primitivism is an influence, an imprint, an "aesthetic ap-

that Einstein christened the"logical consequence of plasticity:'n His most

proach,"64 benighted by a lack of any clear or precise definition. The defi-

telling example, the African mask, is not therefore-as was the usual in-

nitions it has amassed over the past decades in the literature justify its

terpretation of the time-an expression of indifference, impersonality,

systematic plural usage today.

or inhumanity, but on the contrary amodel of intensity, of"the elaboration

The appearance of the word "primitivism" as early as in the middle

of apurified structure" capable of generating "a state of frozen ecstasy:' 72

of the nineteenth century derives from the diffusion of the concept of Eu-

In this regard, one of Goldwater's conclusions is that the art of the

ropean "Primitives"-fourteenth- and fifteenth-century artists from

"primitives" deploys the mask, but not the portrait. Hence, the focus no

Flanders and Northern Italy in whom painters of the second half of the

longer has to be on the psychological characterization of a human sitter,

nineteenth century sought inspiration. The generalization of the term

but, on the contrary, they should be presented as impersonal, anonymous 19

Fig. 8IPablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907 Oil on canvas, 180 x 230 cm Museum of Modern Art, New York, Bequest of Lillie P. Bliss

even, so as to become a figure or symbol. 73 Thus, this early definition of 74

20

museum held an exhibition entitled "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art:

primitivism construes it as "an attitude productive of art." Its study

Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, and a catalog with the same title

entails an understanding of the transformations affecting vision in that

was published on the occasion. The impact of both was tremendous.

period and of how reference to other cultures served as a means of re-

Giving widespread currency to the words "primitivism" and "primitivist;'

vealing the limits of a society in upheaval. The African, Oceanian, and

the aim of this blockbuster was to furnish ahistorical approach to the en-

Amerindian arts thus served as catalysts for intrinsically modern aesthetic

counter between Western modern art and so-called "primitive" productions.

ideas, the link between these artifacts and the primitivist painters being

In the US, however, its chief consequence was to fuel a debate on the

solely metaphorical, with any sense that they were derivative or indulging

question of primitivism that spawned numerous rebuttals, notably James

in formal borrowing amounting to an error of judgment. In this context,

Clifford's The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography,

Modigliani's caryatids, Picasso's "magic"75 faces, and Brancusi's marble

Literature, and Art in 1988.

sculptures appear as the results of formal serendipity, aestheticrenewal,

From the outset, William Rubin was widely criticized for, firstly, the

and individual identity being liberated by the shock of the creator's con-

choice of the word "primitive" itself, the use of which requires at least an

frontation with non-European art.

awareness of what it conveys, that is, the domination of one society and

Here is where Goldwater's theses fall down: if his ideas on the in-

culture over another-or rather over several others;76 and secondly, the

tensification of the image and the simplification or generalization of form

methodological and theoretical preconceptions on which the exhibition

culminating in early abstraction still hold today, his remarks on the un-

was based. 77 Due to the curator's explicit, indeed brazen ethnocentrism,

derstanding of the non-European arts remain stuck in the late 1930s,

and in spite of the term "Primitivism" in its title, the show paid homage

marred by a Eurocentric definition of art, in which its "primitive" manifes-

solely to Western art influenced by the "primitive" arts, with no real ap-

tations are only considered as"art" once the West has appropriated them.

preciation of the African, Oceanian, and Indigenous American pieces on

Almost fifty years later, similar rebukes were articulated aboutthe approach

display. For Rubin, primitivism is the posture of reevaluating traditional

to primitivism proposed by William Rubin, curator at MoMA. In 1984, the

and archaic art forms to encourage the emergence of a more natura l

sensibility and to combat academism, and so it "refers, not to the tribal arts in themselves, but to the Western [artists'] interest in and reaction to them:178

Fig. 9I Henri Matisse, The Dance/, 1909 Oil oncanvas, 259.7 x 390 cm Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller in honor of Alfred H. Barr

The methodology the curator opted for was placed under scrutiny: modernism is presented as the search among "primitive" peoples for"prin-

art in the debate on primitivism. Since the passive posture presupposed

ciples" that transcend culture, politics, and history-"common denomi-

that creativity came from appropriation, the question was, in consequence,

nators," as they are called in the exhibition. Presented in a room of

irrelevant.81The "Primitivism" exhibition enshrined the radical distinction

"affinities;'itself highly contentious, these "common denominators"were

between discourses of aesthetics and anthropology-not only because

one of the scientific aberrations of the exhibition, as has been repeatedly

the art world tended to neglect the scientific study of "primitive" objects,

79

pointed out. The many accusations leveled at the exhibition coalesced

but also because anthropologists generally showed scant interest in the

round the seminal issue of cultural appropriation. If, for its curator, prim-

visual qualities of the objects they collected and studied.82

itivism is a Western art concept of reflection and creativity inspired by

Despite the slew of criticism it received even while it was on, the

the outward appearance or form of some "primitive" object-leaving

MoMA exhibition did take a fresh look at primitivism, complementing

aside its anthropological, social, cultural, and religious dimensions-

the definition proposed by Goldwater and offering much evidence of the

other art historians, such as Thomas McEvilley, consider that to amount

profound if allusive "affinity" that developed between the Primitive and

to nothing less than appropriation, fulfilling Western art's need to renew

the Modern. Rubin proved that Goldwater's metaphorical connection did

its aesthetics in line with the sensitivities of the time.

80

not go far enough and showed what the historical European avant-gardes

At the time, the question was all the more topical, since in 1983,

had lifted wholesale from non-European art-from African, Oceanian,

shortly before the opening of the Mo MA exhibition, Jean Clair, curator of

and Indigenous American art in particular. 83 Above all, the exhibition

the graphic art department at the Centre Pompidou, published an essay

opened up the thorny historiographical question of the "primitive" that

in which he denounced the systematically passive character of"primitive"

persists to this day. By the late 1980s it was clear that the reduction by 21

critics and dealers of the "primitive" arts to an art of influence had to be resisted and the annexation of primal art by Western art opposed. To mount, in the early 2020s, an exhibition centering on the idea of "Primitivism" to honor the centennial of Modigliani's death inevitably means leaving oneself open to all sorts of accusations-indeed to many of the same that dogged Rubin's MoMA show in the late 1980s: that of promoting "affinities" between diverse forms of extra-European art to the detriment of the distinctions studied and reaffirmed for the last thirty years; that of reigniting the European-centered vision of art history, that guardian of the definition of"the artS:'which only deigned to include objects by "primitives" in the notion of art in the early twentieth century thanks to the intermediary of "primitivist" influences; that of running roughshod over the most recent approaches (in the social and political history of art, in post-colonial studies, in the transnational history of art) by retelling the old story of the ebb and flow between countries, artists, schools, and periods-methodologies that today'sart historians are regularly called upon to jettison as research and interpretation advance. It is, however, difficult to imagine how an exhibition commemorating the centenary of an artist'sdeath could be mounted without placing the I

stress on that artist, and, in the case of Amedeo Modigliani, without adopting the facile solution of the headline-grabbing solo show. Perhaps his relationship to primitivism might offer a new way of viewing hisart.

Fig.10 I Amedeo Modigliani, Head in Profile, 1907 Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 29.5 cm, Private collection

The idea is not new: in 2002, I made a start by venturing to assert that Modigliani was an avant-garde painter on a par with many of his contemporaries, at a time when he was disdained by art historians and dis-

but, in their different ways, both came to the fore during this period of

paraged as a kitsch artist of marginal interest. Indeed, like Picasso with

diverse influences and affected one another's oeuvres. They were two

his figures in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (fig. 8), Matisse with his dancers

artists who, by simplifying and intensifying their forms, participated in

(fig. 9), or Derain with his Bathers (cat. 60), Modigliani embarked on

"primitivism" as defined by Goldwater, and who, by borrowing directly

similar analytical research into the figure, preferably feminine and naked,

from non-European works, were also part of the "primitivism" promoted

84

the result being his Caryatids (cats. 21, 24).

by Rubin; and who, entranced by the ethnographical collections in the

Almost twenty years later, while studies on "Primitivism" and its

Trocadero, lived through a period of European colonial expansion and

offshoots have blossomed in France, Europe, and the United States,

witnessed the attendant influx of African, Oceanian, and Indigenous

Modigliani still has not been accepted as a major contributor to this

American artifacts. They were two artists, in short, with apassion for the

artistic turning point. As his "rediscovery" gathers pace-at a time mu-

"primitive;' because, paradoxically, their society both exalted and disdained

seums such as the LaM in Villeneuve d'Ascq and Tate Modern in London

the "primitive." 87 If "the primitive artist"is no longer an acceptable entity

are staging major retrospectives of his oeuvre and forgeries have never

because, in the singular, primitivism has lost all meaning, perhaps "prim-

been hunted down so vigorously-a centennial tribute should be treated

itivist revolution" might be used to describe the transformations, influences,

as an opportunity to reassert his image as aforward-looking painter.

and various "primitivisms" inflecting art in France and in Germany.

No better stratagem could be devised than to place him in direct contrast with Picasso-his contemporary, friend, colleague, and rivalwho was the epitome of an artist under"primitivist"influence, the "hero"85

Two Artists of the Avant-Garde

86

to whom the "modernist revolution" is sometimes solely attributed.

22

Both men, Modigliani and Picasso, paid heed to influences from

We have talked about the periods and sources of inspiration, the aesthetic

"elsewhere" and for a number of years, though their methods were at

theories followed by the primitivists, and the issues of borrowing and ap-

odds, they treated them in a very similar manner. Both have to be seen

propriation. It is now time to study the primitivist revolution in light of

in light of their primitivist contemporaries, Brancusi, Matisse, and Derain;

the transformations it brought about in the oeuvres of Modigliani, Picasso,

and some of their contemporaries. In order not to lapse back into presenting non-European art as passive in its relationship with European art on the question of primitivism, the emphasis must be placed on individual pieces of art in order to assert their unchallenged role as models or benchmarks. Rather than choosing awide range of objects and studying them cursorily, a limited quantity must be examined more thoroughly. In the same spirit, the extra-European artifacts should not be studied alongside their cultural peers in the forlorn hope of highlighting "affinities:' Finally, one must avoid studying "modern" pieces back-to-back with "primitive" pieces with the aim of showing which "modern" piece was directly inspired by which "primitive" artifact. Instead, the focus should be on one artwork's overarching visual qualities, corresponding to the general definitions of primitivism outlined above: discourse, simplification, intensity, borrowing, iconography. Struggling to free themselves from the shackles of Western classical art, modern artists started taking an interest in works from Africa, Southeast Asia, Oceania, the Americas, and even from European antiquity. How each artist treated these arts depended, however, on the individual, each primitivist being in their own manner unique. Sharing perhaps the same sources and influences, above all their lives were intertwined: able to see each other's paintings and sculptures, the ceaseless cultural and in-

Fig.12 IAndre Derain, Portrait of the Artist's Father, 1904-5 Oil on canvas, 28.5 x 23.7 cm, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Chartres

tellectual ferment that characterized this group of artists transpires in every piece, despite the variety of primitivist influences. One thing is certain: Modigliani is an avant-garde artist. Between

1906 and 1914, his artistic research clearly resembles that of his contemporaries:88 the parallels in Modigliani and his contemporaries, notably Picasso, as regards women, the theater, and the use of alcohol and narcotics, were extremely close. Atthat time, the aesthetic explorations of the avant-garde centered entirely on analytical research into the figure-the naked female, primarily. Frequent in the history of art over several centuries, the theme of the bathers reached its artistic zenith between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. First Renoir then Cezanne produced countless variations on the theme. The latter studied every conceivable analogy between woman and landscape, analyzing the interaction of form from every angle. Then Braque and Derain took up the theme of the bathers, the former in 1907, the latter from 1905 to 1909. The climax was attained with Picasso and Les Demoise/les d'Avignon, painted in Paris in 1907 and traditionally taken to herald the birth of Cubism. By ahistorical quirk, this canvas was painted shortly before Picasso's visit to the Trocadero's ethnographical collections, at atime when he claimed to know nothing about African art. 89 Whatever he might allege, Picasso was already influFig.11 IAndre Derain, Portrait ofV/aminck, 1905 Oil on canvas, 41 x 33 cm, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Chartres

enced by his contemporaries and by primitivist precursors such as Cezanne. After his wanders through the Trocadero, the inspiration in his paintings

23

yet familiar with the work of the Fauves. Thus, his artistic approach and research had led him to the same conclusions as those of his contemporaries, as further illustrated by the extraordinary portrait of Paul Alexandre's father, Jean-Baptiste Alexandre with Crucifix (fig. 13): the face displays the same expressive force as Derain's Portrait of the Artist's Father, as if the aesthetic characteristics of the two patriarchs were identical. Modigliani was also enthralled by the other great theme of the Paris avant-garde at that time: the theater. In the summer of 1906, while Picasso was pursuing his fascination with the stage in G6sol, a village in the hills of Catalonia,92 Modigliani and Paul Alexandre were going to the theater in Paris: "Modigliani loved the theatre, which presents life in a way that blends dream and reality. At the theatre it seemed to us that we were living through a waking dream. A whole series of his drawings was inspired by the theatre. Stage-lighting, with its intensity, its color, its strangely placed sources (at that time footlights were still in use) was so unnatural that to his trained eye it gave the impression of a dream. In the old 'Gaite-Rochechouart; because of mirrors placed on the side walls, spectators, in certain seats (which we always chose), saw the spirited and thrilling image of Miss Lawler, which was so often reproduced, multiplied into alegion of small Miss Lawlers. At other times the stage would Fig.13 I Amedeo Modigliani, Jean-BaptisteAlexandre with Crucifix, 1909 Oil on canvas, 92 x 75 cm, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen

seem to be a brilliant rectangle at the end of a long, dark corridor with its four walls blazing with colourful humanity."93 In this intensely creative period, Modigliani produced dozens of

becomes more obvious and the spatial construction follows the principles set out by Goldwater. Highly cultivated, Modigliani was always searching, making dis-

But theater is also about masks. What is a mask? It isa face super-

coveries, learning, absorbing. Arriving in Paris in 1906, the artist started

imposed on another face: the first hides, or protects, the second- the

assimilating the work of Cezanne on show at Bernheim's and admired

real, invisible face. On the stage a mask obscures the actions of players

the carvings by Gauguin unveiled at the Salon d'Automne. He also showed

who appear in aform different from what they are in reality; it also con-

an interest in African, Oceanian, Khmer, Etruscan, archaic Greek, and

stitutes an art form in itself, as with commedia dell'arte and Japanese

Indian art, from which he derived "his ideal female figure": the caryatid.

theater. The mask in art can represent other symbols: in African tribal art,

90

Unlike Picasso, of whose Demoisel/es d'Avignon he must have heard talk,

it conceals the sorcerer during a ceremony (fig. 14); in Egyptian art, it

Modigliani pushed his study of and research into the"ideal female figure"

adorns the mummified real face of the Pharaoh or symbolizes one of

to the extreme-much further than other artists of his generation concerned with the theme. 91

their gods. For the artist- for Modigliani, for Picasso-the dual reference

Thus, even if Modigliani had little connection with the artists of the

The mask was thus a "structure, chosen by the wearer either to

Parisian avant-garde, his stylistic preoccupations run along parallel tracks,

cover his true face, or to foresta ll the incongruity and disintegration of

to the theater and to non-European art isheavy with significance.

as evidenced by the small Head in Profile he brought to rue du Delta in De-

his features, or to ward off some external power.. .. If Picasso returned

cember1907 and later dedicated to Paul Alexandre (fig.10): the treatment

to G6sol and to the primitive life there, it was also so as there to unearth

of the texture (the background particularly) is very close to certain Fauvist

some of its secrets."% As Picasso confirmed after seeing the masks in the

works by Derain, such as the Portrait of Vlaminck of 1905 (fig. 11) or even

Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero the following year:

the Portrait of the Artist's Father of 1904-5 (fig.12). And this portrait itself

"Masks, they're not sculptures like the others. Not at all, they were

recalls the treatment of the background in Modigliani's painting Woman's

magical things .. . were intercessors. I've known the word in French since

Head with Beauty Spot. Intriguingly, it iscertain that at the time the artist

that time. Against everything: against unknown, threatening spirits ... . I then understood why I was a painter:'97

executed these portraits, probably before his arrival in Paris, he was not 24

drawings, often of the same subject, in a quest for a"high degree of intensity"94 that would allow him to assertthat"Fulfillment is on its way."95

For Modigliani, this "theory of the mask" attains its acme in his caryatids. The caryatid is none other than a face, from the front or in profile, deliberately inexpressive and highly hieratic: it is a mask hiding the true nature of the individual. Modigliani's quest has only one purpose: to find the ideal sculptural figure-the one allowing the most profound human introspection by presenting anonymous and inexpressive faces. Two works exemplify this fact: The Red Bust against a black ground and the Large Red Bust (cat.1) of the former Netter collection. The undeniable power of these works, the intense presence of the subject in spite of the featurelessness of the figure, demonstrates a total mastery of the introspective research into the human soul at work in Modigliani's painting. Physically frail, Modigliani was unable to attain similar mastery in carving, since he soon found it beyond his strength, as Paul Alexandre described: "In these drawings there is invention, simplification and purification of the form. This is why African art appealed to him. Modigliani had reconstructed the lines of the human face in his own way by fitting them into primitive patterns. He enjoyed any attempt to simplify line and was interested in it for his personal development. .. . This search for simplification in drawing also delighted him in certain paintings by Douanier Rousseau or in Czobel's figures from fairground stalls. His major works of the pre-war period developed after a long period of gestation .... When a figure haunted his mind, he would draw feverishly with unbelievable speed, never retouching, starting the same drawing ten times in an evening by the light of acandle, until he obtained the contour he wanted in a sketch that satisfied him .... He sculpted in the same way. He drew for along time, then he attacked the block directly. If he made amistake,

Fig.14 I Mask, Fang, Gabon, before 1906, Painted wood, 42 x 28.5 x 14.7 cm Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Bequest of Mme Andre Derain, formerly in the collection of Andre Derain

he would take another block and start again. The labour of trimming to size bruised and exasperated him. His dream was to have an assistant to trim his blocks. He gave up sculpture because he found the physical effort

than the others to these kinds of sensations, was in bliss. As for Picasso,

of direct carving too great. In his whole life he sculpted just over twenty

seized by a nervous fit, he was shouting that he had discovered photog-

big figures. Almost all of them are in effect the same statue started over

raphy, that he may as well kill himself, that he had nothing left to learn:'102

and over again, as he tried to achieve the definitive form-which I

It was not until the tragic death of the German painter Karl-Heinz Wiegels

believe he never attained:'

98

that Picasso ceased these experiments:"after an eventful evening during

Finally there remained drink and drugs. There seems not much left

which he [Wiegels) had successively taken ether, hashish, and opium, he

to say about "Modigliani, the drug addict and alcoholic:' But even here

lost all sense of self, never coming to his senses, and in his lunacy, a few

the image of the artist has been distorted by the legend of the peintre

days later, hanged himself:'103

maudit. Who knows that Picasso took up smoking opium, introduced to

"Hashish sessions;' and even of other drugs, were thus common

it by acouple he bumped into in the Closerie des Lilas in 1905?99 According

practice at that time and one did not have to be an artiste maudit to

to Pierre Daix, although it is difficult to tell whether the paintings of this

indulge in them, as Paul Alexandre, who took credit for introducing

period bear the traces, the absentminded air of the Boy with aPipe seems

Modigliani to the effects of hashish, himself remarked:

100

to indicate that he is smoking something other than tobacco. Likewise, a drug formula appears in his Carnet Catalan.

101

"Asmall group of us also occasionally had 'hashish sessions;for ex-

Picasso's companion at

perimental and artistic purposes. Hashish produces extraordinary visions

the time, Fernande Olivier, recalls ahashish party one evening in autumn

and it'sfascinating for a painter. It was my friend Le Fauconnier who in-

1907:

troduced me to hashish. He organized the firs.t session in his studio in the "Apollinaire was howling madly with joy at being in the b[rothel]

rue Visconti with his friend Georges Bonamour, a stylish fellow who had

where he thought he was. In a corner, Max Jacob, better accustomed

first initiated him .... Le Fauconnier had painted arather interesting por-

25

everything beforehand, because the image he creates on paper or canvas appears prefigured on his retina. Most of the time, he simply records what he can already see. His nature is energized, excited to apeak by the drug; the images become sharper, clearer:'106 "Picasso'sart was visionary. He has the ability to see otherwise than with normal sight. Vision is, according to Webster's also: 'the act or power of perceiving mental images (as those formed by the imagination):"101 "Modigliani's art is revelatory, and, according to Webster, 'to reveal' means 'to unveil,' to 'discover:''108 Modigliani may then have discovered how, by the use of drugs and alcohol, he could attain an ideal state of "plenitude" and engage in introspection conducive to the creation of art. Contrary to legend, Modigliani was neither an alcoholic nor adrug addict.109 He did not create under the influence of narcotics or drink: like a"seer,'' he needed them to fathom the depths of the human soul, to penetrate the other and discover what lay hidden within himself:"Alcohol insulates us from the exterior, it helps us delve into our inner self, all while making use of the outside world:'110 "[1]t's the human being that interests me. Its face is the supreme creation of nature.

Fig. 15 I Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Alexandre, 1909 Oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm, Private collection

trait of him. With Le Fauconnier we all set out to experiment with hashish. I have kept some fantastic sketches done by Henri Gazan when we were all drugged with Drouard, Desmaret, Jean Dupont. ... Modigliani too was very interested in our hashish experiments.... In the Metro that evening with Modigliani, when the session was over and we thought we had got over the effects, the arrival of the train through the tunnel had an incredible effect. It was as if an amazing orchestra with millions of extraordinarily powerful cymbals had swept in like a whirlwind ... It was just the noise of the train on the rails. Modigliani never, to my knowledge, drew when he was drugged, but he recalled his visions in the task of simplification, of purification of form and col or that was his way of working. It was also under the influence of hashish that he started his studies of marionettes, whose stilted and mechanical appearance enchanted him and fascinated us all for some time:'104 Unquestionably, drugs heightened the senses of all these artists. "It gives one asense of the totally gratuitous character of the gift it offers, and, in consequence, of the uselessness of all effort-as if everything has already been done and that it is pointless to do anything else:'105 Yet, as Josep Palau i Fabre explains: "the drug only gives us what we have, it only reveals what potentially exists in us:' ln his view, when, having taken hashish, Picasso declared he had discovered photography, the artist was "revealing a secret quality of his eye. When he draws or paints, he sees

26

Fig.16 IAmedeo Modigliani, Paul Alexandre, 1911 Oil on canvas, 92 x 60 cm, Privatecollection

The year1914 was awatershed in Modigliani's career. For his health, the artist had to abandon sculpture: "Carving is too hard a job. I'll start painting:'114 From 1914 to 1920, Modigliani was thus exclusively a painter, a"war painter:'115 Hostilities broke out on August 2. A new chapter was opening for the Paris art world. Nearly everyone was called up: Braque, Derain, Charles Camoin, Roger de la Fresnaye, Albert Gleizes, Mo'ise Kisling, Frantisek Kupka, Fernand Leger, Matisse, Jean Metzinger, Maurice de Vlaminck. Thus ended the adventure at rue du Delta: mobilized on August 3, Paul Alexandre spent the entire war on the front line.116 Drouart, Doucet, and Coustillet marched off never to return. "[Modigliani] went before the draft board, which judged him unfit for military service;'117 so he stayed in Paris, alone, despite his family's wish he return to Italy. Another artist remained in Paris during these dark days: Picasso, the Spaniard.118 Ironically, both exempted from service, the intellectual and the intuitive found themselves together. Living in Paris was not easy during this time. The front was not far off; soldiers were forever trudging through the city and great swathes of them in uniform packed the cafe terraces. Ayoung man in civvies was not aparticularly welcome sight. The relationship between the two men had its ups and downs. Its keynote though was respect, since Modigliani, as his friend Anselmo

Fig.17 IPabloPicasso, Olga in an Armchair, 1918 Oil oncanvas, 103 x 88.8 cm, Musee National Picasso, Paris

I turn to it tirelessly."111 And thus, totally absorbed, Modigliani no longer perceives the model, but dives down into the nature of human existence. This is Lunia Czecowska's vision of the artist painting his first portrait of her: "I can see him now, in his shirt sleeves, very disheveled, trying to capture my features on the canvas. From time to time, he would reach for abottle of old brandy. I could see the alcohol was having an effect: he was getting keyed up. I no longer existed; he could see only his work. He was so engrossed that he started speaking to me in ltalian:'112 The conclusion cannot be gainsaid: Modigliani was indeed an avantgarde artist, as evidenced by his first participation, in 1917, at an international exhibition at the DADA gallery in Zurich, alongside Kandinsky and Klee. And iffurther proof were needed, one need only look at the portrait of Paul Alexandre, executed in 1911; behind the model no longer appears his painting The Jewish Woman, as in earlier portraits (fig. 15), but a twisted column with the artist's signature on the base (fig. 16). This element is in fact none other than the Endless Column-a symbol of the quest for the infinite-which, five years later, became a favorite theme of Brancusi's.113 Could Modigliani be the initiator of one of the Romanian sculptor'smasterpieces?

Fig. 18 I Pablo Picasso, Madame Rosenberg with Her Daughter, 1918 Oil on canvas, 130 x 95 cm, Musee National Picasso, Paris

27

Fig.19 IPablo Picasso with the painting Bathers at La Garoupe, 1957

After the war, Picasso married Olga and turned hisback on his bohemian existence. Primitivist influences vanish from his output entirely. Meanwhile, until hisdeath in 1920, Modigliani'spainting conserved many

Bucci assures us, thought that nothing good could come from France-

characteristics of primitivism, such as simplification and invariable struc-

save for Matisse and Picasso. 119 Coming from an artist whose unforgiving

ture. If his caryatids edged towards amore subtle treatment of the human

aesthetic and intellectual standards manifested in violent outbursts (he

body, the forms remain the same. His large nudes were new caryatids:

destroyed several works by Maurice Drouard and Gaston Coustillier), the

the neck remains elongated, and, with the nose and face, they conserve

compliment was more than lip-service. On the other side, it is certain

a mask-like appearance through which it is possible to decipher the sub-

that Modigliani exerted an influence on Picasso'spainting at various junc-

ject's personality. Although, on some portraits, Modigliani felt compelled

tures, and the Spaniard was even so shaken by what the Italian was doing

to inscribe the subject's name or else words pregnant with meaning in

that he stopped working for several months. Their artistic relationship is

his eyes (such as "knowledge"), his paintings, like the sculptures before,

still more complex: when Modigliani produced a canvas that seemed to

still possess the specific quality of a"primitive" object-that of recording

him too simplified, too geometric, too structural for his taste, he would

the customs or culture of the time, without the need for script or text.

unfailingly exclaim, "It's still a Picasso!"120 In 1918, Picasso's painting un-

In 1957, Picasso produced avery surprising painting entitled Bathers

derwent adecided U-turn, with several extremely classical canvases, por-

at La Garoupe (fig. 19), a large-scale work that can be seen as atribute to

traits with a single sitter, at precisely the same time as Modigliani was

primitivist painting from Cezanne to Derain. The almost totemic figures

consolidating his own reputation for portraiture. Both dated 1918, Olga

are once again refined to aquintessence-as if referring back to aremark

in an Armchair (fig. 17) and Madame Rosenberg with Her Daughter (fig.

made by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who once said that Picasso never

18)-a kind of Virgin and Child plopped down in a Henry II armchair-

stopped thinking about Africa.m Unless, maybe, it was actually Modigliani

stand out in Picasso'scorpus and seem very close in composition to paint-

who remained etched in his mind ....

ings by Modigliani.

28

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" 12 13

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' ~ 10

~ 21

n " " 26 l1

18 29

" • ~ 33

~ 35

36

Y 38

39

40 41

42

43

44

45

Paul Alexandre answered an unnamed correspondent in 1951: "I have not given you my permission because I know nothing of the book you wish to publish. I wish to reserve the reproduction of the works which I possess for abook that will give an image of Modigliani that is far closer to reality and very different from the one that has been created by what has been published so far in France and abroad"; in Noel Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, trans. CBaker and M. Raeburn (London: Royal Academy of Arts/Fonds Mercator, 1994), 16. Alexandre, The Unknown Modiglioni, 21. Married to a childhood friend of Leopold Zborowski's, Lunia Czechowska remained the painter's faithful friend, but above all one of his favorite models, as the many portraits he made of her show. Ceroni's first book on Modigliani includes Lunia Czechowska's memoirs in an appendix: A. Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, followed by "memoirs" by Lunia Czechowska (Milan: Edition del Milione, 1958), 20- 21. Reproduced in Alexandre, The Unknown Modig/iani, 28-32. Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 28. lbid.,28. lbid.,28. Ibid., 28. Ibid., 28. Ibid., 29. Ibid., 29. Ibid., 29. Ibid., 29. "[S]till accompanied by his protective mother, who never left his side and even shared his bedroom." Ibid., 31. Modigliani freely acknowledged the debt he owed to his mother. He admired her without stint throughout his life, always carrying with him aphotograph of her. See ibid, 62. Ibid., 30-31 Letter no. 5, published in Ceroni, Amedeo Modiglioni peintre, 18. Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, 18. Ibid., 18. Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 15-21. Ibid, 15. Ibid., 60. Ibid., 59. Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, 24. Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 62. Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, 21-22. Ibid, 28. Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 59. Ibid, 59. Ibid., 89. Lunia Czechowska, in Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, 30. Jacques Chapiro, La Ruche (Paris: Flammarion, 1960), 168. Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 31. In her biographical notes, his mother recounts how, believing that he had gone beyond that phase in his artistic development, he destroyed ahead he had made for her. "La Vita e un Dono: dei pochi ai molti: di Coloro che Sanno et che hanno aColoro che non Sanno et che non hanno." Modigliani, it should not be forgotten, knew the works of Dante by heart. Reproduced in Alexandre, The Unknown Modig/iani, lll. Despite his mother's insistence, Modigliani's spiritualist experiences do seem to have left atrace, as evidenced by two magnificent watercolors produced later, one depicting awoman at a seance, another showing aman with his hands lying on amagic table. Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, 16. Chapiro, La Ruche, 168. Letter written from Rome, in Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peinrre, 17 (from the French translation of the letter originally in Italian, reproduced on page 11). Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, 17 (from the French translation of the letter originally in Italian); reproduced page 13. "[Capri,] whose name alone was enough to stir up in my mind atumult of images of ancient beauty and delight, now appears to me as an essentially spring-like place. In the classical beauty of the landscape, it harbors-in my opinion-an ever-present and indefinable sense of sensuality. And even (in spite of the English invading everything with their Baedekers) abright yet poisonous flower rising from the sea." As for Venice: "the head of a Medusa with countless azure snakes, an immense, murky eye, in which the soul loses itself, exalted in the infinite." In Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, 16, 18. Paul Rivet and Georges-Henri Riviere, "La reorganisation du Musee

46

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56

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d'ethnographie du Trocadero,"Bulletin du Museum national d'histoire nature/le (Paris: Masson et Cie, 1930), 2,478. Anne Loyau, "Le Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero et ses transformations, 1878-1935: configurations, espaces museaux et reseaux," in La France savante (Paris: Editions du CTHS, 2017), 239. Respectively: Raymond Lecuyer, "Un vernissage au Musee d'ethnographie du Trocadero. Bronzes et ivoires du Benin," Le Figaro (June 16, 1932); Paul Fierens, "L'art du Benin;' Journal des debats politiques et litteraires (July 26, 1932); Georges-Henri Riviere, "Defense et illustration du Musee d'ethnographie;' Les nouvelles lilteraires (August 8, 1931) Andre Malraux, La Tete dbbsidienne (Paris: Gallimard, 1974), 18. This particularly well-known account has been quoted in many studies, such as Jean-Luc Ferrier, L'Aventure de /'art au XXe siecle (Paris: Le Chene, 1988), 81. Fran1oise Gilot and Carlton Lake, Life with Picasso (London: Virago Press, 2004 [19641), 248-49. Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 67. The Musee lndochinois had no reason to be ashamed of its museography, which almost surpassed that of its neighbor, the Musee de Sculptures Comparees, founded by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in 1879 in the opposite wing of the building and corresponding to what is today the Cite de !'Architecture et du Patrimoine. The Musee lndochinois, with its outsized casts, was then also competing with the South Kensington Museum, the future Victoria & Albert Museum, where equally imposing casts were exhibited, including areplica of the eastern gate of the Great Stupa at Sanchi, in India. Michael Falser, "From Gaillon to Sanchi, from Vezelay to Angkor Wat. The Musee lndo-Chinois in Paris: aTranscultural Perspective on Architectural Museums;' Journal of the International Association of Research lnsritutes in the History of Art 2(April-June 2013): §40. Loyau, "Le Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero," 238. Falser, "From Gaillon to Sanchi;' §1. Alice Conklin, Race, ethnologie et empire en France (7850-7950) (Paris: Publications scientifiques du Museum, 2015). Quoted in Rebecca A. Rabin ow, ed., Cezanne to Picasso: Ambrose Volland Patron of the Avant-Garde (New York: Metropolitan Museum Publications, 2006), 129. Dominique Poulot, Une histoire du patrimoine en Occident, XVll/eXIXe siecle (Paris: PUF, 2006), 150-51. Fabrice Grognet, "Les enjeux museologiques de la reorganisation du Musee d'ethnographie du Trocadero," in Andre Delpuech, Christine Lauriere, and Carine Peltier-Carol, eds., Les annees folles de lerhnographie: Trocadero28-37(Paris: Publications scientifiques du Museum national d'histoire naturelle, 2017), 78. Conklin, Race, ethnologie et empire en France. Philippe Dagen, Primitivismes. Une invention modeme (Paris: Gallimard, 2019), 55, 61. Fabrice Grognet, "Les enjeux museologiques de la reorganisation du Musee d'ethnographie du Trocadero," in Delpuech et al., Les onnees folles, 78. Loyau, "Le Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero," 236 As in 2018, for the exhibition at the Musee du quai Branly, "Peintures des lointains" (January 30, 2018- February 2, 2019). Marc Restellini, Modigliani et le primitivisme, exh. cat. The National Art Center, Tokyo, March 26- June 9, 2008 (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2008). Marie Mauze, "Regards sur le primitivisme. Apropos de William Rubin, (ed), 'Primitivism' in 20th-Century Art Affinity of the Tribal ond the Modem. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1984;' Gradhiva 2(1987): 59-61. The publication was best known in its second edition in 1967, with the title Primitivism in Modem Art. Carlo Severi, "L'empathie primitiviste," Images Re-vues, special number 1, 2008. Ibid. Ibid. Carl Einstein, Negerplastik (Leipzig: Verlag der weissen Bucher, 1915), 347. Severi, "L'empathie primitiviste." Einstein, Negerplastik, 353. Severi, "L'empathie primitiviste." Restellini, Modigliani et le primitivisme. James Clifford, The Predicament ofCulture. Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art (Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1988), 155. Dagen, Primitivismes, 10. Mauze, "Regards sur le primitivisme," 59-61.

~

William Rubin, "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art: Affinity ofthe Tribal and the Modem, exh. cat. Museum of Modern Art, New York (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1984), 5. "' Clifford, The Predicament of Culture, 152-53. "' Thomas McEvilley, "Doctor Lawyer Indian Chief: Primitivism in 20th Century Art at the Museum of Modern Art in 1984," Artforum XXIII, 3 (1984) 54-61. • Jean Clair, Considerations sur lttat des Beaux-Arts (Paris: Gallimard, 1983). 82 Mauze, "Regards sur le primitivisme," 59-61. 83 Severi, "L'empathie primitiviste." 84 Marc Restellini, ed., Modigliani: /'Ange au visage grave, exh. cat. Paris, Musee du Luxembourg, October 23, 2002 - March 2, 2003 (Paris: Skira/Seuil, 2002), 23. 85 Clifford, The Predicament of Culture, 152. 86 Ibid, 156. 87 Dagen, Primitivismes, 329. 88 Matisse and Brancusi, but also Derain, Laurens, and Braque, as well as De Chirico. 89 Picasso assured Zervos that at the time he painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon he had no inkling of the art of sub-Saharan Africa: quoted by Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso Cubiste (Cologne: Konemann, 1998), 43; it is aclaim that appears also in Pierre Daix, Dicrionnaire Picasso (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1995), 521. 50 The painting kicked up such afuss at the time that Modigliani must have heard of it. Moreover, Paul Alexandre refers to regular visits to Kahnweiler's on rue Vig non and how Modigliani scrutinized Picasso's works in silence; Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 62. ~ As well as Braque, Derain, and Picasso, already referred to, mention can also be made of the sculpture of Matisse, including the Two Negresses of 1909. " In the winter of 1906, Picasso executed adrawing of astage curtain with three naked women in the middle. See Josep Palau i Fabre, Picasso Vivan/ (Cologne: Kiinemann, 1998), 480. 93 Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 62. 94 These are the terms Paul Alexandre uses to describe Modigliani's quest; ibid., 65. 95 According to Modigliani's own expression in aletter to Paul Alexandre in April 1913; ibid., 104. 96 Fabre, Picasso Vivant, 469. w Malraux, La Tete dbbsidienne, 81. 98 Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 65. 99 Daix, Dictionnaire Picasso, 656. 100 Ibid., 656 101 Fabre, Picasso Vivan[, 468. lOl Daix, Dictionnaire Picasso, 439. IDl Ibid., 439. 104 Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 48, 53. 105 Fabre, Picasso Vivant, 469. 106 Ibid., 469 107 Maud Dale, Modigliani (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1929); quoted in Marc Restellini et al., eds, Modigliani: The Melancholy Angel (Paris: Skira, 2002),26 "' Dale, Modigliani; quoted in Restellini, Modigliani: The Melancholy Angel, 26. 109 Thus, when Survage asked him whether he was an alcoholic, he answered, "No, I'm able to drink when Ineed to work and stop whenever I want to"; in Chapiro, La Ruche, 167. '" Ibid, 166. 111 Ibid., 168. m Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, 21. 113 Brancusi first executed The Endless Column in 1918. Considered one of his masterworks, and going, in the words of Pontus Hulten, much further than any other, it makes a major contribution to spiritual knowledge in our century. ™ Chapiro, La Ruche, 166. 5 " See above. ' 6 The two men never saw each other again. 117 Biographical notes by Eugenia Garsin; Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, 31. 118 As aneutral country, Spain took no part in World War One. 119 Pierre Daix, "Picasso et Modigliani," in Restellini, Modigliani: /'Ange au visage grave, 65. llO Daix, "Picasso et Modigliani," 66. 111 Dagen, Primitivismes, 140.

29

MODIGLIANI - PICASSO: Two Visions of Primitivism

Juliette Pozzo

"'Have you noticed; Picasso laughed, 'that Modigliani is only seen drunk in places where he can cause a scandal? [ ... ]'That Utrillo and Modigliani might be drunk most of the time did not upset him in the

During the first quarter of the twentieth century, the artistic and personal

least, but he had difficulty in accepting that they took advantage of their

links between Picasso and Modigliani were remarkable in several respects.

drunkenness to escape his grasp. In fact, neither 'Monsieur Maurice;

1

Unlike Picasso's "cordee" with Georges Braque during the same period,

whose misadventures were beyond counting, nor Modi ever attached

or the intellectual partnership that he formed on occasion with Guillaume

the least importance to Cubism; and Picasso was fa r too intelligent not

Apollinaire, his friendship with Modigliani has not garnered much atten-

to regret that these two great painters had proved able to revive atradition,

tion. If the status of their relationship is less self-evident than those

which, especially up in Montmartre, had allowed them to remain free."5

usually viewed as iconic in the history of the avant-garde, a comparison

This heaven-sent rivalry, rekindled in Mike Davis's 2004 movie

of their works brings out a clear community of thought and highlights a

Modigliani, deftly spices up the avant-garde story and simplifies the his-

shared emulation of primitive forms. Far from an exclusive relationship,

torical and aesthetic analysis of the various movements that entered the

however, their synergy is to be seen in the light of asingular artistic mo-

fray at the beginning of the twentieth century.

ment with far-reaching consequences.

Nevertheless, others maintain that works of Picasso's Blue and Rose Periods impressed Modigliani. Visiting his studio around 1907, Louis Latourrettes saw him before one of his works looking crestfallen. "It's all

Two Incompatible Mythologies?

wrong!" Modigliani burst out. "It's still a Picasso, but it's trash. Picasso would kick a hole in such a monstrosity:'6 And, as if feeling obliged to

Emerging in conjunction with the Ecole de Paris and the bohemian lifestyle

justify this rare expression of admiration, Latourrettes added, "In passing,

associated with it, the mythology around Modigliani has emphasized his

I would like to point out that Picasso and the Douanier [Henri] Rousseau

2

rivalry with Picasso instead of the common ground between them. It is

are the only artists that I heard Modigliani praise unreservedly; it was in-

true that sources relating to their meetings are few and far between. At

frequent that he should venture an opinion on his contemporaries at

the end of athorough study, Pierre Daix concluded that their relationship,

all:'7 Contradicting Carco, Fernande Olivier recalls in her memoirs the

to which there were so few witnesses, was poorly known and merely bol-

sincere friendship between the two artists: "In Montmartre, where 'Modi'

3

stered the mythology of each artist. In an attempt to deconstruct the

lived before his 'accursed life' in Montparnasse, we saw him quite often

cliche that very early on gathered around her father, Jeanne Modigliani

and liked him very much."8 She took care though to be precise about the

observes, "By cherry-picking from the evidence, Blaise Cendrars, Andre

nature of these links:

Salmon, and Francis Carco created acharacter, exasperating or seductive

"Picasso seemed to esteem and like him-if Picasso was capable

depending on one's leanings, but probably as far from the real Amedee

of friendship for anything other than his paintings. Besides, who could

4

Modigliani as Don Juan was from Miguel Mafiara." As for Picasso, he

fail to grow fond of this charming, gentle artist, so generous in his dealings

lived too long for his own mythology to have remained outside his control

with others. My Picasso, who was in Montparnasse at the time, may have

to the same extent, but he also could not avoid being pursued by a whiff

mentioned that he did not like Modi's way of life; he was already a lost

of scandal.

soul and his extravagances were the talk of the town .. . No doubt neither

Constructed independently, the respective mythologies of Modigliani

Modi nor Maurice Utrillo ever placed much store by Cubism, no more

and Picasso soon placed them in two separate camps, initially because of

than Picasso placed any by their works. Still, Picasso, though attaching

their contrasting personalities, which, in broad terms, appear incompatible.

little importance to them, was too intelligent an artist to deny their value

The "accursed" and solitary artist embodied by Modigliani could never

. .. [and] perhaps discovered their charm as he observed them:'9

have seen eye-to-eye with Picasso's self-confident, extrovert persona.

Arelatively unclassifiable artist, Modigliani could never be the fig-

Some chroniclers, such as Francis Carco, go so far as to allege that the two

urehead Picasso became with the birth of Cubism. The Italian artist found

artists could not abide one another, remaining blind to each other's work:

himself grouped in with the Ecole de Paris-a notion concocted by Andre 31

image in an ontological process deploying bricolage. In contrast, Modigliani, an intuitive individual and an admirer of Nietzsche, relies above all on sensory observation of the world. Nevertheless, these two contradictory perceptual operations contain a substantial overlap in terms of visual imagination.

Primitivism as aMeeting Point Despite such differences, Modigliani's artistic trajectory was, in many ways, comparable to Picasso's. First of all, there is the same arduous struggle to survive and fruitful efforts to preserve artistic freedom. This shared experience of Parisian modernity heightened their taste for anything that stood against art world conventions. Abandoning their respective native countries, both on the Mediterranean, they managed to distance themselves from their cultural origins, without, however, ever entirely discarding them. This fresh angle not only allowed them to throw off their academic shackles, it also made them more receptive to non-Western models, in which they discovered congenial patterns of thought. As they gradually grew familiar with primitive artifacts, each trained his eye to appreciate their timeless and sanctified sculptural qualities. The most widely known evidence of this sensitivity is the treatment both artists give to faces that Fig. 11 PabloPicasso, Page from the Royan sketchbook no. 43, 1939-40 Pencil ongraphpaper, 16.3 x 22.3 cm Musee National Picasso, Paris

they endow with "unseeing;' pupilless eyes. In parallel with the depersonalization of the sitter, the motif of the closed eye surfaces in studies painted for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and in numerous portraits by Modigliani from 1916 on. Inherited from Cezanne, the blind eye is also a

Warnod to ward off xenophobic criticism of this group of foreign artists, rather than atheoretical or aesthetic definition.

10

of their generation, starting with Andre Derain, who came across African

Moreover, the distance between the studios of Picasso, whose career

sculpture in the British Museum in 1906, both artists saw in these age-

was launched in Montmarte, and Modigliani, whose work was transformed

old, primal forms an indispensable foundation for revolutionizing their

following his move to the Cite Falguiere in Montparnasse in 1909, may

own way of seeing. This attraction compelled both artists into violent

have lent credence to the thesis of their enmity in the imaginations of

confrontation with these objects. The poet Anna Akhmatova, who saw

their biographers. The"Prince of Montparnasse"took up residence at one

Modigliani often in 1910, recounts the artist's frequent visits to the Louvre,

end of the city while the leader of the "Picasso gang" reigned over Mont-

to which he was drawn by the lure of Egyptian art:

martre. It was as if the work produced in these twin hives of activity

"Modigliani was infatuated with things Egyptian. He used to take

needed to be at odds. If, therefore, the isolated Modigliani was to have

me to the Louvre, to the Egyptian wing, assuring me that everything

found solace with his contemporaries, it would likely have been with fig-

else, 'tout le reste; was unworthy of attention. He sketched my head in

ures such as Soutine, Zadkine, or Utrillo, but undoubtedly not in the

the style of decorative motifs portraying Egyptian queens and dancers.

11

Cubism of Picasso and Braque. This wou ld be to forget, however, a

He seemed completely enthralled with the splendor of Egyptian art . ..

number of friendships and close ties with other artists, such as Constantin

Egypt was the last big step in his development:'13 For his part, Picasso had experienced asimilar aesthetic shock with

Brancusi, for instance. Above and beyond this myth, which arose chiefly due to a scarcity

non-Western sculpture in 1907:

of factual documents concerning Modigliani'slife, there lies a reality. Be-

"When I became interested, forty years ago, in Negro art [art negre]

tween 1910 and 1914 in particular, the two artists did exemplify diametri-

and I made what they refer to as the Negro Period in my painting, it was

12

32

manifestation of an adherence to "primitive" representations. Like others

cally opposed perceptions of art. In his Cubist oeuvre, Picasso espouses

because at that time I was against what was called 'beauty' in the muse-

a reflective approach in which precedence is taken by the conceptual

ums. At that time, for most people, a Negro mask was an ethnographic

object. When I went for the first time, at Derain's urging, to the Trocadero museum, asmell of dampness and rot there stuck in my throat. It depressed me so much that I wanted to get out fast, but I stayed and studied. Men had made these masks and other objects for a sacred purpose, a magic purpose, as a kind of mediation between themselves and the unknown hostile forces that surrounded them, in order to overcome their fear and horror by giving it a form and an image. At that moment, I realized that this was what painting was all about. Painting is not an aesthetic operation; it's aform of magic designed as amediator between this strange, hostile universe and us, a way of seizing power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires. When I came to that realization, I knew I had found myway."14 Both exploring archaic forms unaided, unbeknownst to one another they laid the groundwork for representations that would send shockwaves through the Western tradition.

Manufacturing Idols Incomparing their respective oeuvres, the strongest resonance is between Picasso'sproto-Cubist production in the wake of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Modigliani'sHeads and Caryatids, produced between 1909 and 1915. There is no evidence to suggest that Modigliani saw Les Demoiselles

d'Avignon between the summer of 1907, the date of its creation, and 1916, the year he took part at the Salon d'Antin, where Picasso's painting was

Fig. 21Detail from the tympanum in thevestibule of the Basilica Sainte-Marie Madeleine, Vezelay, 12th century Photograph from the private collection of Pablo Picasso Musee National Picasso, Paris, Gift of Picasso's heirs

exhibited for the first time. Although shortly after its execution Picasso set the painting aside, he nonetheless continued his efforts to reframe

Modigliani-just as it did for Picasso. Maud Dale, in a preface to the cat-

the human figure. Occupying astudio next door at the Bateau-Lavoir for

alog of the Brussels exhibition in 1933, seconds this viewpoint: 'When

atime, Modigliani could have seen works following from the Demoiselles,

African art began to exert its influence on the Montmartre group,

such as Reclining Nude with Figures (cat. 63) and two very beautiful paint-

Modigliani was still asculptor. The stone heads and numerous drawings

ings entitled Female Head (cats. 113, 116). He would also have been able

of caryatids he has left us show the extent to which he understood the

to see the two Oceanian sculptures that Picasso had acquired in 1908,15

plastic power of sculpture:'

whose characteristically schematic eyes and arched eyebrows reappear in certain heads Modigliani carved in 1909- 10 (cats. 77, 78, 80).

Picasso began his journey toward the origins of art in the summer of1906 while staying in G6sol, where he devoted himself to woodcarving.

Previous studies of the importance of primitivism in the oeuvres of

It was in this village, located on the Catalan border and free of the trap-

16

pings of modernity, that he produced three figures, including the Bust of

All stress the importance of Cycladic, Egyptian, Assyrian, Khmer, African,

Fernande (cat.10). Strongly inflected by the Iberian sculpture he had seen

and Pacific art. What is most striking about these numerous analogies is

in the Louvre shortly before his departure, this figure reflects a radical

the very broad spectrum of cultures referenced by two artists who, in

shift in his formal vocabulary and shows how the process of archaization

these two artists have noted many other common influences as well.

their thirst for new forms, blithely disregarded all artistichierarchy. Picasso

was already well underway at that time. Unknown until after Picasso's

was adamant: "Primitive sculpture has never been surpassed .... The As-

death, the surfaces of these "bois de G6sol" are all roughly treated and

syrian bas-reliefs still maintain their purity of expression:~1 As acomparison

only partly polished, the figures fashioned by incision rather than by carv-

of their output makes clear, the resonances in this common visual repertory

ing in-the-round. Constrained by both material and technique, the lines

speak of two parallel paths, both leading to arelated process of introducing

display a rigidity previously unseen in the artist'soutput.

archaic elements into the human figure. Standing at the heart of this sty-

With no previous training, Modigliani, in contact with Brancusi,

listic development, sculpture played a crucial and revelatory role for

also experimented with sculpture between 1909 and 1915. Like Picasso, 33

known as the "Brummer head" (cat. 89), which they did much to make better known.19 It is against this backdrop that the 1916 Lyre et Palette exhibition, in which Picasso and Modigliani both participated, should be viewed.

The Lyre et Palette Exhibition of 1916 On 19 November 1916, the Lyre et Palette association opened an exhibition in the studio of the Swiss painter Emile Lejeune, located at 8, rue Huygens, in Montparnasse. Formed in 1915, the aim of the group was to encourage the union of the arts and to promote artistic creation, which the outbreak of World War One had thrown off track. The first such show, it brought together a large number of the "Montparnos" who had been pho tographed by Jean Cocteau a few months earlier in front of the modish restaurant, La Rotonde; this included Picasso, Modigliani, Ortiz de Zarate, Mo'ise Kisling, and Max Jacob, and Jean Cocteau himself took part in the event, alongside Henri Matisse, Erik Satie, and poet Blaise Cendrars. For the first time in France, here were artists simultaneously exhibiting Western, African, and Oceanian works of art, with the avowed intention of forging a brand-new aesthetic. Non-Western artifacts were presented on a par with contemporary art and in almost equal numbers.20 "Art negre is as beautiful as the art of Phidias. It is through the imitation of Fig. 3IPablo Picasso, Woman with Artichoke, 1941 Oil on canvas, 195 x 130 cm Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Papuan masterpieces that European aesthetics is currently being renewed;' proclaims the exhibition catalog. Modigliani's dealer, Paul Guillaume, lent twenty-five-such pieces for the occasion.21 Groundbreaking both for the history of primitivism and the avant-garde, the exhibition came in

34

Modigliani fantasized about recovering the primal artistic act, and it was

the wake of the unveiling of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon at the Salon

direct stonecutting that played the role of incubator in his primitive forms.

d'Antin, which opened in the summer of 1916. It also played an important

The heads he sculpted from 1909 seem afar cry from the painted figures

role in Modigliani's career, as Emile Lejeune describes in his memoirs:

of previous years. Massive, hieratic heads surge forth from imposing

"In the end, in addition to showing, for the first time in Paris, fetishes

blocks, and the purity of the sculptures' geometric forms and a haptic di-

and black idols in a purely artistic context, this trailblazing exhibition

mension accentuated by the polished stone bespeak the sacred. Drawing

succeeded in alleviating Modigliani's hardship-albeit all too briefly,

on the properties of wood or stone carving, both artists created impres-

alas-and even more in getting him talked about."22 As the best repre-

sively static and monumental representations of the human figure, en-

sented artist, with fifteen works in the catalog, Modigliani was spotted

dowed with strong incantatory power.

by Leopold Zborowski, who later became his main dealer.23 As for Picasso,

Fueled by asimilar sensibility, the emergence of primitive forms in

he sent in only two works, aGuitar and Violin, probably two of his recent

the production of the two artists was also facilitated by acontext conducive

larger Cubist paintings.24 The relatively modest scale of the event has

to the fusion of the arts. Although present in Europe from the second

obscured its significance in the history of the avant-garde, especially in

half of the nineteenth century, non-Western objects only acquired the

its links with primitivism. The mere fact that Modigliani and Picasso

status of genuine artworks in the 1910s-that is to say, simultaneous

were among the handful of participants underlines their joint involvement

with the discoveries of Picasso and Modigliani. Amarket for indigenous

in an aesthetic renewa l based on the incorporation of non-Western

art accelerated with the establishment of anetwork of specialized galleries.

forms.

Yaelle Biro18 has highlighted the role of dealers like Joseph Brummer and

In addition to this mutual commitment to looking at the non-West-

Paul Guillaume in the creation of a new way of looking at these objects,

ern arts and so-called "primitive" forms with a fresh eye, both artists

as well as that of archetypes, such as the fragment of a Fang rel iquary

evinced averitable obsession with the female model. Including as it does

at least one work by Modigliani, Pablo Picasso'spersonal collection reveals how both artists used the female portrait to engineer an equally powerful renaissance in vision.

Modigliani in Pablo Picasso's Personal Collection: The Appeal of Italian Primitivism

Fig. 4IPablo Picasso, The Rocking-Chair, 1943 Oil on canvas, 161 x 130 cm Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris Fig. 5IPablo Picasso, Dora Maar, 1937 Oil oncanvas, 92 x 65 cm Musee National Picasso, Paris Fig. 6IPablo Picasso, Seated Woman with Raised Arms, 1940 Painted pieces of board sewn on board, 17 x 13.9 cm Musee National Picasso, Paris

Modigliani's death in 1920 did not extinguish Picasso's appreciation of his oeuvre. The circumstances surrounding Picasso's acquisition of Black

Hair (cat. 52), also known as Dark-Haired Girl Seated, remain uncertain.25

it provides further evidence of Picasso's constant dialogue with hispersonal

There is every reason to believe that Picasso acquired it from the art

collection and the visual inspiration it appears to have provided.

dealer Martin Fabiani, either as a purchase or in exchange for one of his

A late canvas of Modigliani's, painted around 1918,28 Black Hair

paintings, probably around the year 1943. Fran~oise Gilot remembers

depicts aslender woman, sitting face-front with hands clasped, against

26

seeing the work in Picasso's studio in February of that year, while apho-

the kind of light-colored background characteristic of the painter's last

tograph taken by Robert Capa in 1944 in the Grands-Augustins studio

years. Her hieratic expression is softened by the slight contrapposto and

shows the painting in the background resting against a heap.

the Mannerist elongation of the neck. Invigorating abackground devoid

Thereafter, Black Hair, like the rest of Picasso's personal collection,

of perspective, the vibrant brushstrokes make this frontal figure seem to

followed him about during his many moves. It was this "personal artistic

float in space in the manner of an icon. A modern rewrite of the seated

guardian"that David Douglas Duncan photographed in 1959 at the Chateau

Virgin motif, the Dark-Haired Girl Seated undoubtedly harks back to

deVauvenargues (fig. pp. 208-9): packed up but ready to be taken out,

Modigliani's Italian roots, and the theme resurfaces regularly in other

Modigliani'spainting appears alongside Henri Matisse'sStill Life with Or-

canvases painted during the same period, such as Elvira with White Collar

anges (1912, Musee National Picasso-Paris) and Paul Cezanne's The Sea

(cat. 50), Young Lolotte (cat. 55), and the portrait Lunia Czechowska (Sao

at Estaque (1878-79, Musee National Picasso-Paris). If, according to

Paulo, Museo de Arte de Sao Paulo). It was this resurgence of the primitive

William Rubin, Picasso did not rate Dark-Haired Girl Seated as highly as

Maesta that probably induced Picasso to acquire Black Hair at a time

his other paintings by Cezanne or Matisse,27 the comparative study of Pi-

when he himself was embarking on aquasi-obsessive return to the motif

casso's works from the time of its acquisition reveals numerous corre-

of the seated woman. The fear of death and deprivation, the anxiety of

spondences and asimultaneous search for the origins of art. More broadly,

imminent arrest, which had gripped Picasso since the bombing of Guernica 35

Fig. 71 Annunciation by Bernardo Daddi from the Louvre, Paris Postcard from Pablo Picasso's private collection Musee National Picasso, Paris, Gift of Picasso's heirs Fig. 8IStatue of the enthroned Virgin Mary Photograph from Pablo Picasso's private collection Musee National Picasso, Paris, Gift of Picasso's heirs

these sketchbooks are covered with dozens of women sitting, each presenting variations around the face and the naked body. In combination, these three axes-body, head, and seated women-articulate an original statement about physical distortion pushed to the extreme. Similar to Modigliani, who elongates to excess the neck, body, and face of his Dark-

Haired Girl Seated, Picasso applies comparable, if far more repulsive, disFig. 9I Seated Virgin Mary with Child Christmas card from Joan Vidal i Ventosa to Pablo Picasso from 1964, from Pablo Picasso's private collection Musee National Picasso, Paris, Gift of Picasso's heirs

tortions to his figures. The gentleness predominating in Modigliani's oeuvre is absent from Picasso's female models. Endowed with twisted, Janus-like, protruding heads, as if on the verge of shattering, they all evince agrotesque ugliness. In this cycle, Picasso sought to express the most primitive terror.

in 1937, were conducive to a mystical relationship with the image. The

The monstrous quality is reminiscent of the prophylactic figures of damned

act of painting became aweapon in his battle against psychological and

souls high up on the great tympana of the Middle Ages. The artist knew

moral disintegration. To the British journalist John Pudney, who came to

these well, and illustrations of them feature in his archives (fig. 2). As a

visit him during the war, Picasso declared that a"tendency in the creative

wellspring of art, the archaic and visceral fear of death leads to what Um-

artist is to stabilize mankind on the verge of chaos ... Most certainly it is

berto Eco has called "the autonomy of ugliness;'31 that is, acharacteristic

not atime for the creative man to fail, to shrink, to stop working. Think of

aesthetic of the ugly, complete with its own canon.

29

the great poets and painters of the Middle Ages:' This comparison be-

Picasso mobilizes an iconography of the ugly that probably had

tween the dark days of World War Two and the medieval period betrays

never before attained such intensity. The outlandish twists afflicting the

how Picasso at that time was seeking refuge in the eschatological imagi-

faces are transmitted to the entire body, charging them with a strange

nary, compelled by aduty to create despite everything. Moreover, in this

current. In some compositions, the sitter's limbs extend into the baroque

context, the possibility cannot be excluded that the artist-better known

scrolls of the arms and legs of an armchair, accentuating the sensation of

for his superstition than for his faith-was endeavoring to channel the

savage disorder. Conversely, some of these torture chairs appear as thrones

prophylactic power of the image.

of glory, as in Woman with Artichoke (fig. 3), thereby restoring dignity to

The theme of the seated woman appears in Picasso's earliest portraits

these modern Maesta. On occasion these austere seats are reduced to a

of his mother and sister, painted shortly after 1890. Taken up throughout

couple of bars stuck out in the mid-ground, as in Modigliani's painting,

his career, the motif reached a climax between 1937 and 1945. Harriet

emphasizing the simplicity and gravity of the model. Steven A. Nasch

and Sidney Janis describe this large corpus of women as "the most vital

has rightly underlined the analogy between some of Picasso's seated

10

36

paintings of the war years;' underscoring the central role the theme

women and certain papal portraits, which confirm the expression of a

played for the artist during the period of conflict. Germinating in portraits

singular terribilita. 32

of Marie-Therese Walter and Dora Maar from 1937, the subject became

Foreshadowing the production of his later years, in the Royan

obsessive in the Royan sketchbooks of autumn 1939 (fig. 1). Sheets from

sketches the chair is turned into an instrument for relentless physical ten-

sion. Now an actual architectonicfeature, the chair imprisons the body

primitive gravity of the Maesta and of Catalan Virgins. Apostcard repro-

in a world verging on disjunction, though it is the only thing preventing

ducing The Annunciation by Bernardo Daddi (fig. 7) found in Picasso's

it from collapse. Such pervasive instability, perceptible in both Woman

archives and various poignantly austere Virgins in Majesty attest to his in-

Seated in an Armchair (1941-42, Kunstmuseum, Basel) and The Rocking-

terest in the motif (figs. 8, 9).33

Chair (fig. 4), resonates with the buoyancy of Black Hair. The golden

The arrival of Modigliani's Black Hair in Picasso'sstudio more than

grounds of Byzantine icons, with their shimmering surfaces, are replicated

twenty years after Modigliani's death, and at a time when both men

in Modigliani's fragmented brushstrokes in Dark-Haired Girl Seated. In

were stigmatized as "degenerate" artists, bears witness to an unfailing

Picasso'swork, the same treatment of backgrounds, without perspective

artistic and emotional kinship.34 The painting's place in Picasso'sprivate

(Woman in Blue, 1944, MNAM, Centre Pompidou) or reduced to a"box"

collection sheds adecisive light on the many seated women he was paint-

streaked with balletic lines (fig. 5), reinforces the sensation of motion to

ing at the time of its acquisition. In this intimate female figure by the

the point of destabilizing the perception of the subject. The model of the

"Botticelli negre;'35 Picasso found an exact counterpoint of his production,

icon is clearly visible in Picasso's output, as with the small, easily trans-

as well as a like-minded quest for the origins of art.

ported figures of seated women on old cigarette boxes from 1940, where

The figure of the Maesta and the liturgical role of icons provided a

the background is daubed in ocher (fig. 6). Where, for Modigliani, the

refuge for the two artists, both assiduous observers of the Old Masters.

lesson of this return to the principles of the icon spawned peaceable

Their dialogue also reveals the proximity of their artistic approaches and

figures of the Virgin and Child, Picasso instead mainly conjured up the

their shared obsession with repeatedly returning to the wellsprings of art.

' The "cordee" was acoinage by Georges Braque alluding to the way Picasso and he were "roped together" like mountaineers. 2 Thierry Dufrene, "De la legende a l'Cl'uvre," in Modigliani (Paris: Citadelles et Mazenod, 2020), 11-21. 3 Pierre Daix, "Picasso et Modigliani," in Marc Restellini, ed., Modigliani, /'Ange au visage grave, exh. cat. Musee du Luxembourg, Paris, October 23, 2002- March 2, 2003 (Paris: Seuil/Skira, 2002), 63-70. ' Jeanne Modigliani, Modigliani sans legende (Paris: GrUnd, 1961), 48. 5 Francis Carco, L'ami des peintres (Paris: Gallimard, 1953), 36. 6 Louis Latourrettes, "Preface," in Arthur Pfannstiel, Modigliani (Paris: Editions Marcel Seheur, 1929), vi. ' Latourrettes, "Preface," vi. 8 Fernande Olivier, Souvenirs lntimes: ecrits pour Picasso (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1988), 227. ' The author thanks most warmly M. Gerard Dufaud for having shared Fernande Oliviers manuscript from which this extract is taken. • Andre Warnod, "L'Ecole de Paris," Comoedia, 19th year, no. 4419 (January 27, 1925): 1. 11 Daniel Marchesseau, "l'isolement de Modigliani,"in Amedeo Modgliani, 7884- 7920(exh. cat. Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1981), 15-16. u Jeanne-Bathilde La court, "L'art qui separe et qui unit, le grand Cl'uvre de Modigliani, 1905-1915:'in Modigliani, liPil interieur (Paris: Gallimard/ LaM, 2016), 25. 13 Anna Akhmatova, quoted in A. Akhmatova and Ursula Austin, "Amedeo Modigliani," Threepenny Review 38 (Summer 1989): 29. 14 Fran(oise Gilot and Carlton Lake, Life with Picasso (London: Virago Press, 2014 [1964]), 248-49

15

Franck Gelett Burgess, "The Wild Men of Paris," The Architectural Record 27 (May 1910): 401-14. 16 See especially William S. Rubin, ed., "Primitivism" in 20th-Century Art (exh cat. Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1996), and Thierry Dufrene, "Primitivisme et modernite;' in Modigliani, 72-83. 17 Jaime Sabartes, Picasso. An Intimate Portrait, trans. Angel Flores (New York: Prentice Hall, 1949), 213. ~ Yaelle Biro, Fabriquer le regard Marchands, reseaux et objets d'ort africains a/'aube du XXe siecle (Dijon: Les Presses du reel, 2018). w Exceptionally sculptural, the "Brummer head," frequently reproduced, made adecisive contribution to the recognition of the artistic value of non-Western sculpture. 20 The catalog lists thirty-five Western and twenty-five non-Western works. ~ On this subject, see the study by Yaelle Biro, who has identified some of the objects shown, in Biro, Fabriquer le regord, 236-42. 22 Emile Lejeune, "Montparnasse al'epoque hero"ique. L'extraordinaire aventure d'un peintre genevois," La Tribune de Geneve (February 56, 1964). B Benedicte Renie, "Le soutien des artistes ala creation contemporaine du rant la Grande Guerre: les soirees de la salle Huygens (1916-1917)," in Marie Gispert, Catherine Meneux, Emmanuel Pernoud, and Pierre Wat, eds., Actes de la Journee detudes "Actualite de la recherche en X/Xe siecle," Master 1, 2013-14, Paris; consulted online: https://hicsa. univ-paris1.fr/documents/file/JE%20Meneux%20Master%202014/9Renie%CC%81-Salle%20Huyghens.pdf. 24 Helene Klein proposes identifying the Guitar with awork in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Guitar and Clarinet on aMan-

25

26

v 28

29

" • n n

34

35

re/piece, 1915, in Max Jacob et Picasso, exh. cat. (Paris: Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1994), 133 Helene Seckel-Klein, Picasso collectionneur (Paris: Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1998), 186-89. Fran(oise Gilot and Carlton Lake, Life with Picasso, 17. William Rubin, Visits with Picasso ot Mougins, conversation with Milton Esterow, Art News 72, no. 6 (summer 1973): 42-46. Christian Parisot, Modigliani: catalogue raisonne (Livorno: Graphis, Arte, 1991), cat. 26/1918. John Pudney, "Picasso - AGlimpse in Sunlight," The New Stateman and Nation, London (September 16, 1944): 182-83; quoted in Marilyn MacCully, APicasso Anthology: Documents, Criticism, Reminiscences (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 225. Harriet and Sidney Janis.Picasso: The Recent Years, 7939-7946(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1946). Umberto Eco, On Ugliness, trans. A. McEwan (New York: Rizzoli, 2011), 16. Steven A. Nasch, "Picasso, Art and War;' in Picasso and the War Yeors, 7937-7945 (New York: New Line Books, 2003), 33. See in particular a greeting card showing a Virgin from Catalonia that Joan Vidal i Ventosa sent to Picasso in December 1964 (515AP/C/172/18/3). Pierre Daix testifies to hearing Picasso speak of Modigliani withgreat emotion on anumber of occasions; see Daix, "Picasso et Modigliani," 70. The nickname that Adolphe Basler bestowed on Modigliani in 1929.

37

BRANCUSI AND MODIGLIANI

Friedrich Teja Bach

Constantin Brancusi and Amedeo Modigliani arrived in Paris at around

known into the energy of an impenetrable, almost brooding darkness. It

the same time, Brancusi from Bucharest in 1904 and Modigliani from

is fair to assume that one of the reasons Modigliani chose ink as amedium

Livorno at the beginning of 1906. At the end of 1907 Modigliani met Paul

for this depiction, with its connotations of wildness and abruptness, was

Alexandre, a physician and patron of the arts who would support him

that he had in mind here not so much the master known for his clear and

over the coming years. Alexandre had rented asmall building in the rue

closed forms of a kiss, head, and torso; but rather the personality of his

du Delta, which he made available for avariety of artisticactivities. There

friend, with all of his emotional and energetic existence. What llya Ehren-

he introduced Brancusi and Modigliani to each other at the beginning of

burg once said about Modigliani's paintings would seem to apply to this

1

1908. Both of them moved in the same social circles, such as the Salon

portrait, that they "reveal the nature of the man:'6

Anders, the Salon Ricou,2 and in the artists' cafes La Rotonde, Le Dome,

The sketch of a portrait of Brancusi (fig. 2), also painted around

and La Closerie des Lilas. They shared many of the same friends and ac-

1909 but unfortunately left unfinished, likewise has aprogrammatic char-

quaintances, such as Ortiz de Zarate and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Pablo

acter. This is not least because the blue contours, the thin coloring allowing

Picasso and the futurists Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini, the writer

the light ground to shine through, and the application of color in a mul-

and critic Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob and Andre Salmon, and the

titude of taches (marks) covering one another recall Paul Cezanne's paint-

sculptors Andre Derain, Jacob Epstein, Jacques Lipchitz, Leon lndenbaum,

ings, especially his watercolors. Cezanne was a major presence in Paris

and Ossip Zadkine. After Brancusi had helped Modigliani find a studio in

during these years. The Salon d'Automne of 1907, where Modigliani

the Cite Falguiere, close to his own studio, the two saw each other more

showed seven of his works, dedicated a room to the artist, who had died

often. It was also Brancusi, together with Maurice Drouard (like Brancusi

the year before, as a memorial exhibition. The Bernheim-Jeune Gallery

aformer student of Anton in Mercie), who introduced Modigliani to sculpt-

held an exhibition of his watercolors that same year, as well as alarge ex-

ing techniques when working directly in stone and helped him refresh

hibition of paintings and watercolors in January 1910. As several of

3

his knowledge in this field. Since at least 1902, and especially during his

Mod ig Iia ni's paintings attest-such as his Beggar of Livorno, The Jewish

early years in Paris, this is what Modigliani desired: to become asculptor.

Woman (La Juive), and The Cellist, the latter executed on the other side of

Modigliani's portrait drawings of Brancusi and asketch of aportrait

the canvas of the Brancusi portrait-Cezanne was the key point of refer-

painting date from this period around 1909. While one of these drawings

ence for his painting during these years.7 Modigliani's portrait of Brancusi

4

thus represents asynthesis of the two artistic orientations most important

another relatively large drawing shows Brancusi seated with his legs

to him at the time: Cezanne in painting and Brancusi in sculpture. It is a

crossed (fig.1). The picture was drafted quickly in pencil and then executed

"confessional painting" -which only deepens the question of why it re-

in ink, with shading lines that were rather dryly applied and an overlay

mained unfinished.

depicts only Brancusi's head and is inscribed "Apres Livorno" and"Brancusi;'

of strokes in bold, rich layers. This work is usually titled Portrait ofBrancusi, Sitting in an Armchair; the title seems appropriate if the vertical oval shape, in which the sitter's upper body is placed, is interpreted as a

II

mimetic representation of the back of an armchair. But such a reading,

Not only did Modigliani and Brancusi's living habitats overlap in Paris,

which has strong social implications (and which also excludes certain

but there were also artistic stimuli that proved decisive to both of them.

places, such as Brancusi's studio, as the site of this picture's origin), is by

Of particular importance was the prehistoric and archaic art of the Mediter-

5

no means compelling. As other drawings show, Modigliani often framed

ranean region, as well as African and Egyptian art. Paul Gauguin and

his subject's figure or upper body in an oval form, emphasizing its unity

Andre Derain played a central role as contemporary mediators. Gauguin,

and closedness, its being gathered together. In the Brancusi portrait, such

whose retrospective exhibition at the 1906 Salon d'Automne caused a

a concentration is also reinforced by the depiction of the eyes, which

sensation, made adecisive contribution to the modern engagement with

translates the piercing, sharply outward gaze for which Brancusi was

non-European cultures and so-called primitive art with his turn to Buddhist 39

Fig. 1I Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait of Broncusi, the Sculptor, ca. 1909 Inkon paper, 36.6 x 26.4 cm, Abell6Collection

Greek archaic sculpture on the left and aconstellation of the figure influ-

Fig. 2IAmedeo Modigliani, Constantin Brancusi (verso of The Cellist), 1909 Oil oncanvas, 73 x 60 cm, Abell6 Collection

flicting cultural orientations which were casually paired in Brancusi's

enced more by African sculpture on the right, a proximity between conwork as in the work of other artists of the time. A childhood friend of Brancusi's, Peter Neagoe, mentions that

and Polynesian art, as well as with works such as Oviri and sculptures carved directly in wood; he went so far as to modify slightly a wooden

Modigliani was also preoccupied with Greek statues at this time and used the term "heads of Archaia"to refer to his own "primitive" heads.11Acom-

sculpture of the Viii people in the Congo and then sign it with his own

parison of several of these heads with that of a standing Attic goddess

8

name. Derain, as his Album fauve shows, was influenced primarily by 9

Egyptian and archaic art, probably as early as 1902; his works carved in

sertion.12 For both Modigliani and Brancusi, moreover, an interest in the

stone, such as The Couple (cat. 67) and the Crouching Man, seem to have

"simple" forms of Cycladic sculpture is claimed in the literature,13 just as

been seminal for Modigliani and Brancusi.10 Brancusi's engagement with archaic sculpture is demonstrated in

40

(ea. 580 BCE) or of Hera from Olympia (figs. 5, 6) seems to confirm this as-

Buddhist art and Khmer art are repeatedly cited as inspirations for both artists.14

a drawing made around 1916. The structure of the figure on the left es-

Above all, however, it was African and Egyptian art that provided

sentially corresponds to the slender, rising body of a Greek kore (figs. 3,

Brancusi and Modigliani with lasting inspiration during these years. The

4). The two circles in the round upper body can thus be read as mimetic

colonialist context of the artistic discovery of African objects around 1900

and abstract at the same time: on the one hand, they represent acombi-

cannot be discussed in detail here. However, mention must be made of

nation of the depiction of the breasts and the two attachments of the

the art trade'sdecisive role in transforming African objects from "foreign

forearms of the Greek model; and on the other hand, together with the

curiosities"into works of art, in the course of which they were stripped of

upper body rounded into a circle, they manifest the shift of the archaic

their own history and turned into ascreen onto which Eurocentric fantasies

model to schematic-geometric forms. The drawing thus reveals an inter-

projected an idea of "Africa" with a new narrative of original simplicity

esting proximity between a representation of the figure influenced by

and purity. What is of interest in connection with the art market is less

\

the supposed opposition between economic interests on the one hand and new perspectives offered by the artists on the other than their joint contribution to the formation of a new way of seeing and new modes of presenting African objects: now as individual works, as isolated objets

d'art. Economy and art also went hand in hand insofar as several of the leading art dealers trading in African objects early on were also artists themselves, such as Joseph Brummer, Robert J. Coady, Marius de Zayas, Paul Guillaume, and Charles Vignier.15 Brancusi'sfirst encounter with African art probably occurred at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, where he stopped in 1904 on his journey from Bucharest to Paris. The decisive contact, however, took place

Fig. 3IStatue of an archaic kore, Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens, ea. 520 BCE Marble, height: 167 cm, Acropolis Museum, Athens Fig. 41Constantin Brancusi, The Couple (sketch for Adam and Eve)), 1916 Pencil on paper, 35.3 x 23.2 cm Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris Fig. 5IColossal Head of Hera, Olympia, 7th-6th century BCE Limestone Archaeological Museum, Olympia Fig. 6IAmedeo Modigliani, Head of a Woman with Chignon, 1911-12 Sandstone, 57.2 x 219 x 23.5cm Kunsthaus Zurich, Gabriele and Werner Merzbacher Collection

in Paris, either in Apollinaire's or Henri Matisse's studio.16 He created The

First Step in 1913 probably under the impression of African figures, such as those of the Bamana (cat. 7; fig. 7). Adrawing of this figure (cat. 8) was in

African art. 19 Second, the contemporary appreciation of African sculpture

the collection of Apollinaire, who was likely one of the decisive mediators

made him aware of the relevance of wood-something familiar to him

for Brancusi's knowledge of African sculpture. Alater version of this sculp-

from the arts and crafts of his Romanian homeland 20-as a material for

ture, also known as Little French Girl, is reminiscent of Senufo helmet

modern sculpture in the context of the urban avant-garde. Third, as Sidney

masks. Three works begun in 1914- 15 should also be mentioned here:

Geist has rightly pointed out,21 the abstractness of African sculpture, as

two large Caryatids and Madame L. R., the upper part of which was

found in some masks, probably made asignificant contribution to opening

probably inspired by the reliquary guardian figures of the Hongwe (figs.

for him apath to an abstract symbolic dimension. This dimension charac-

17

8, 9). Finally, Brancusi's Adam and Eve also references African art in

terized his wood sculpture, as in the works Madame L. R., Watchdog, The

several respects. The original Standing Figure, which he then reworked,

Sorceress, Chimera, and The Prodigal Son. The latter appears to be a free

as well as the idea of placing the reworked figure on a supporting figure

variation on the theme of African shoulder masks (figs.10, 11) and was in-

with male connotations and presenting it as Adam and Eve might have

deed presented by its first owners together with African sculpture. 22

drawn on, among other sources, adouble figure of the Kasai 18 and afigu-

Modigliani'sinterest in African sculpture has been attested to several

rative staff of the Luba. But Brancusi not only adopted individual forms

times.23 Aportrait of Paul Alexandre, which seems to quote Brancusi'sIn-

and ornamental motifs such as notch-cutting, saw-shaped bands of spikes,

finite Column, appears at first glance to be an homage to the two most

and sequences of ring-shaped coves. Rather, for three reasons, African

important people for him at this time-but only at first glance, since

art was of fundamental importance to him. First, there was what he in

the zig-zag motif on the right edge does not in fact refer to the Infinite

retrospect described as the"liberation of the artistic imagination"through

Column, but to a North African wall hanging, probably a Beni Ourain 41

owned by the sitter, or to afabric pictured in a photograph of Jeanne He-

with this type.26 Some of his caryatid drawings, in which the figure exhibits

buterne (fig. p. 206). 24 In contrast to Brancusi, however, Modigliani was

acertain rig or of frontality and symmetry, may have been stimulated by

only interested in figurative motifs as inspiration for his own works. Dance

caryatid stools, such as those of the Luba of the Congo (cats. 24, 27).

masks of the Bau le as well as masks of the Fang and Marka have been

At the beginning of the twentieth century Egyptian art was afurther

cited in particular as references for his head idols. 25 A comparison of a

decisive orientation for artists such as Matisse, Derain, and Picasso. 27 For

stone Head in the Philadelphia Museum of Art with amask of the Marka

Brancusi, an interest in the "monumentality, the power of abstraction

(cat. 78; fig. 12) shows the formal affinity of the two elongated heads

and synthesis" of Egyptian art is attested to in 19Qg28 and may have become

with their prominent nose wedges, or rather the affinity of the two facial

manifest in his early Maiastra series of birds.29 His Wisdom of the Earth

forms. For in the block of the back of the head and the angular shape of

(cat. 5) and Ancient Figure recall in their pose the corresponding sitting

the neck-at least in its front contours- Modigliani's head exhibits a

Egyptian figures (fig.13).There is also acontemporary source for Modigliani's

tectonic quality derived from adifferent conception than that of an African

interest in Egyptian art. Anna Akhmatova noted that around 1911 Modigliani

mask. Another type of head, in which a compressed eye-nose-mouth

showed her the Egyptian collection in the Louvre, "claiming that one did

constellation is set in an almost circular face, also seems to draw inspiration

not need to see anything else, tout le reste. He drew my head with the

from African art. Along with the Head in the Kimbell Art Museum, sketch-

decoration of Egyptian queens and dancers and seemed to be completely

book drawings by Modigliani confirm the intensity of his preoccupation

smitten by the great art of Egypt:'30 Some of Modigliani'sdrawings in particular echo with resonances of Egyptian forms.31 In certain drawings of heads (fig.14), in the masterful head idol in the Tate Gallery and in another

Fig. 7I Male figure, Bamana, 19th century Wood, 65.5 x 14.5x 11.8 cm Musee du Quai Branly- Jacques Chirac, Paris Fig. 8IReliquary Guardian Figure, Hongwe, Gabon Wood, cooper sheet, and wire, height: 64 cm Privatecollection Fig. 9I Constantin Brancusi, Madame LR., 1914-17 Wood, height: 117.4 cm Private collection

42

in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (cat. 78), Modigliani found a special form, aspecial sign, for depicting the outer corner of the eye: comprising the folds of this outer corner or the arch of the eyebrow, and the line of the eyelid at the extreme end of the outer canthus, this form represents a characteristic element of the Egyptian udjat, or Eye of Horus (fig.15). Contrary to the suggestion offered by photographs typically arranged in pairs, direct correspondences can only seldom be made for Brancusi's and Modigliani'sengagement with archaic art and non-European objects, so that the allocation and differentiation of "influences" hardly makes

sense. This is not only because the various inspirations were adapted and fused in the artistic activity, but also because at this time the various forms of so-called "primitive" art were often not understood to be essentially different. Thus Matisse, who was one of the first modern artists to purchase an African sculpture, remarked that the piece "reminded him of the giant

Fig. 10IShoulder mask "Nimba;"'Dimba," Baga, ea. 1900 Wood, copper, 125 x 62 x 32 cm Musee du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Paris Fig.11 IConstantin Brancusi, The Prodigal Son, ca.1914-15 Wood on limestone pedestal, 44.4 x 20.5 x 20.5 cm, pedestal: 32 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art, Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection

porphyry head in the Egyptian Rooms of the Louvre;' giving him the impression that"the methods of delineating forms in both civilizations were identical."32 Apollinaire, moreover, wrote in 1912, "some fetishes from

Direct working of the material promised for sculpture a new begin-

central Africa reveal an aesthetic that is not very different from that of an-

ning, one which displayed its proximity to its supposed origins. Closely

33

cient Egypt." The first exhibition of African art in a gallery, in 1913 at the

linked to this technique was the idea of truth to the material, that is, the

Levesque publishing house, "displays the art of Africa ('art neg re') together

idea that the sculptor was to be inspired by the specific material, the

with ancient artworks from Asia, Egypt, and by the Aztecs."

34

block of wood or stone, and of the block-like shape of sculpture, resulting from the adjustment of its concept to the form of the available material. This approach was partly due to the fact that the artists-not least for fi-

Ill

nancial reasons-worked with found stones. The contours of these blocks

What connected Brancusi and Modigliani as sculptors in these years was

from construction sites, or parts of demolition beams and railroad ties,

above all the technique of tail/e directe, the direct carving of stone. The

were then partially preserved in the course of the work process or could

traditional procedure in sculpture consisted of modelling afigure in clay;

at least still be sensed in the result. From 1907 onwards, works by Brancusi

this was then transferred to a larger scale for execution in marble, either

such as the Head ofaGirl (fig.16), 35 Head Carved in aPebble Stone, Wisdom

directly or through the intermediary form of aplaster cast, with apointing

of the Earth, and Ancient Figure, as well as heads by Modigliani, like those

machine; finally, it was carved, usually by members of the workshop. It

in the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation and at the Musee National

was this workshop practice, exemplified by Auguste Rodin, that had led

d'Art Moderne in Paris (figs.17, 18), demonstrate very well the direct work-

sculpture into a crisis, according to younger sculptors such as Derain, Ep-

ing of a limestone block, particularly in the latter work's front and back.

stein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Brancusi, and Modigliani.

The Paris head, moreover, evidences the risks of this working method in 43

effect and a heterogeneity of different cultural impressions. Just as Modigliani's caryatid drawings are inspired by diverse traditions, such as African objects and Greco-Roman figures-one of his drawings is labeled "Anadiomena" and documents his knowledge of Hellenistic renderings of the crouching Venus Anadyomene-the large Standing Figure is reminiscent of prehistoric, archaic Greek statues and Khmer figures in its posture; of Egyptian art in its elaborate hairstyle; and of African masks and heads in the shaping of the face. The crouching Caryatid and the large Standing Nude are the only large figures carved in stone by Modigliani that have survived. Orbiting them are many drawings and gouaches in which Modigliani repeatedly varied the theme of the caryatid in different types of postures: standing, crouching, cross-legged, in frontal and side views, and so on.38 These variations often diminish the tectonic quality associated with the theme. The syntactic regrouping of the anatomical, implicit in the tectonic, is accentuated towards a rhythmic play of contours. This is exemplified by two caryatid drawings in the exhibition (cats. 32, 35). The red-toned Caryatid from the Museum of Modern Art, executed in gouache and ink, is the "hotter" and wilder of the two; the blue-toned Caryatid from the Netter Abb. 12IMask of the Marka Private collection

Collection, drawn in colored pencil, stands out for the disciplining of its contours, amore even weighting of elements, and the elaboration of the interplay of its curves. With their resonances of rhythmically moving linearity that overplay the organic integrity of the female body, as well as

what is today the reverse side, which was first worked on as the front side

in the erotic quality of their swelling corporeality, these caryatids bear

and then abandoned. Apparently, Modigliani had exposed the lower edge

similarities to Brancusi'sPrincess X, carved afew years later (figs. 22, 23).

of the almond shape of the right eye too sharply, and had ruined the shape of the nose by atoo decisive blow to its right tip. Ablock-like shape lends atectonic quality to asculpture and opens it up to an architectural dimension, to areal or imagined integration into an architectural context. A central theme in this context is the caryatid. Examples of this in Brancusi's work are the Double Caryatid carved in stone (fig. 19), which he used as the central element of the stele for his first Maiastra figure, as well as two large Caryatids carved in wood, and the drawing of acaryatid functioning as the capital of apillar.36 The theme is even more central for Modigliani; however, he was only able to complete a single Caryatid in stone (fig. 20). The crouching female figure, fully carved in the round in soft limestone, has her arms raised above her head to bear the weight. Her partly rudimentary articulation, the rough surface showing traces of the work process, and the stocky, heavy legs give her an archaic appearance. Related to this work is the life-size Standing Nude (fig. 21), identified by the cornice-like design of the back of its head as belonging to the caryatid family.37 The appeal of this figure-one of the preparatory drawings can be found in the exhibition (cat. 43)-rests on the tension between the areas left raw, such as the pole-like legs, and the strict geometric forms, such as the breasts and belly, or the fine linear drawing of the eyebrows, creating a friction between an archaic overall 44

Fig.13 IPrincess Wemtet-ka, Dahshur, pyramid ofSneferu, Egypt, ea. 2670-2620 BCE

....,

!'11.!

With these caryatid drawings, Modigliani convincingly succeeds in staking out an independent position in the contemporary contest between various views of the form of the female nude in modernism, which extended from Manet to Picasso and Matisse. In addition to the rhythmization of the contours, his drawings of caryatids are also increasingly marked by

Fig.14 I Amedeo Modigliani, Head in Lerr Profile, ca.1911-12 Pen, ink, wash, 20.9x 26.7 cm, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen Fig.15 IGoddess Hathor-Amentet, detail from wall painting in the vestibule of the tomb ofHaremhab, Thebes, Egypt (Valley of the Kings, Luxor), 19th Dynasty, 1333-1306 BCE

an ornamentalization of the figure. Lovingly drawn details such as the curves of the eyelashes and eyelids, emblematic mouth shapes, sexual

teric-pantheistic foundation of Brancusi's world view and to his notion of

characteristics shaped into graphic forms of adornment, elaborate hair-

the essence and mission of art. 42 Modigliani is known to have "engaged

styles, and the body jewelry of chains-as well as the chandeliers and

with the occult and hermeticism" and "to have read most of the books

candles in the background suggesting a festive atmosphere-illustrate

dealing with this field:'43 Jewish thought had a special significance for

the obsession that underlies Modigliani'scult of the feminine. 39

him. Since his youth he was familiar with the Kabbalah as the determining

Both Brancusi and Modigliani were concerned not only with the

force in the ecumenical humanism of the Sephardic Jews of Livorno,

tectonic quality of the caryatids, but also with the architectonic dimension

which was based on the fundamental unity of all religions. 44 Occasionally,

of their sculptures and with their architectonic framing. For Brancusi one

he added an alchemist symbol to his drawings. 45 One of his very few sur-

thinks above all of the ensemble ofTargu Jiu, but also of projects such as

viving personal notes regarding his worldview, dating from 1913, reads:

the tower building in the form of his Infinite Column and his project for a

"Just like the snake sheds its skin, you will free yourself of sin.

40

temple. Similarly, Modigliani also considered presenting his caryatids and head idols as an ensemble in atemple de tendresse, atemple dedicated 41

~

Balance

through opposing extremes. t::,. Man regarded from three aspects

*

46

Aour!" Such an interest in esoteric traditions is not specific to Brancusi

to beauty. Yet while the architectonic quality plays a fundamental role

and Modigliani, but rather evident in their entire artistic circle, including

in Brancusi's sculptural production and his plans for the architecture of a

Alexander Archipenko, Otto Freundlich, Manuel Ortiz de Zarate, Guillaume

temple were relativelyadvanced, in Modigliani's sculpture the architectonic

Apollinaire, Erik Satie, Andre Derain, and, above all, Max Jacob.47 In its

does not represent atruly decisive dimension and the engagement with

various manifestations it is an expression of urban spirituality and reli-

the possible architecture of atemple cannot be documented in his work.

giosity and forms the basis of the idea of a universal language of art, of

In connection with these temple projects, one should mention the

notions of the life of the material and the material accordance of the

significance of the esoteric for both artists. The term here refers to the

sculptural form, and of conceptions of simplicity and beauty as goals of

contemporary interest informs of Neoplatonism, gnosis, Jewish mysticism,

artistic production. In their interplay with concrete objects of non-European

Christian thought, alchemy, hermeticism, spiritualism, the occult, anthro-

art, these esoteric ideas stimulated the contemporary search for origins

posophy, and theosophy. Numerous indications testify to such an eso-

and were an important component of Modigliani and Brancusi's friendship. 45

Thus, if we take as an example the single surviving postcard Modigliani

be seen in works such as The Kiss, Maiastra, and Danaide (fig.19, cat.125);

sent to Brancusi, the choice of the picture on the front of the card, which

in The Prodigal Son and Timidity (1916/17), whose contour follows three

shows Piero di Puccio's fresco (Pisa, Camposanto) with the creation of

circles (figs. 24, 25); and in works such as Architectural Project (1918) and

Adam and Eve and their expulsion from paradise, is much more charac-

Infinite Column (1918), which evolved from his pedestal forms. In

teristic of the artists' friendship than the more-or-less banal wording on

Modigliani's work, it is worth recalling the almost geometric internal and

the back.

48

contour forms of many of his heads and figures, both carved in stone and drawn on paper, as in his large Standing Nude and the aforementioned blue Caryatid (cat. 32; fig. 26). A description of Modigliani's manner of

IV

drawing reveals the genesis of his rigor and precision of line:"His manner

In addition to the direct treatment of the material, the search for simplicity

of drawing was also peculiar. He used to draw from life. On thin paper,

and essential form is the second fundamental commonality in Brancusi's

but before the sheet was quite finished he put a second sheet, covered

and Modigliani's sculptural production. However, this search manifests

by graphite paper, underneath and on it [he] traced the original drawing

itself in different ways. What they had in common initially was the ap-

in a very simplified way:'50 The common tenor of their artistic efforts is

preciation of the power of numbers and the geometric rig or of sculptural

the realization of beauty, understood as the union of opposites. "Beauty;'

form. In the period of 1905 to 1920, one could say that abelief in grounding

Brancusi notes, "is the harmony of different, opposing elements:'51 Similarly,

artistic expression in the universal laws of mathematics was awidespread

Modigliani speaks of "balance through opposing extremes."52 The con-

artistic credo. As Apollinaire put it in 1912: "geometry is to the visual arts

ception of beauty as abalance of conflicting elements quotes an ancient

49

what grammar is to the writer." In the case of Brancusi, this belief can

topos of aesthetics, as in Greek myth where Harmonia is the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares, the goddess of love and the god of war. Acentral difference between Brancusi and Modigliani is the extent

Fig. 16 I Constantin Brancusi, Head of aGirl, 1907 Photograph by the artist Whereabouts of the sculpture unknown

to which beauty is tied to the human figure. Modigliani is essentially a portraitist and figure painter and remained, as Werner Schmalenbach

Fig.17 IAmedeo Modigliani, Head ofa Woman, ca.1911-13 Stone, 47 x 27 x 31 cm Musee National d'Art Moderne, CentrePompidou, Paris

and to a balance between abstract and individualizing features was not of the female figure. For Brancusi, too, the theme of beauty is attached

-

46

was"fateful" also insofar as Modigliani's adherence to the"image of man" least rooted in his Jewishness. For him, beauty is essentially the beauty

Fig.18 IAmedeo Modigliani Verso of Head of a Woman (fig.17)

•

aptly wrote, "almost fatefully bound to the image of man:'53 This bond

to the female figure, as in Baroness R. F., Sleeping Muse, Danai'de (figs.

119,125), and AMuse. Impressive and at the same time irritating is the insistence with which he holds on to this attachment, notably in the Miss

Pogany series (1912-33, figs. 120-23), in which simplicity and beauty, after all, always risk putting on the dress of afashionable elegance, of an "essence as an Art Nouveau motif."54 Yet, early on, Brancusi's search for beauty extended to forms of the creaturely and even of things, for art must, as he once noted, "represent beauty as it is, in its frame and in its place:' 55 For him, this includes above all animals, but also plants and even

Fig.19 IConstantin Brancusi, Maiastra with Double Caryatid, 1910-12 White marble, limestone pedestal, total dimensions: 233.7 x 32.5x 27.1 cm; height of Double Caryatid and pedestal: 177.8 cm Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Katherine 5. Dreier Fig. 20 IAmedeo Modigliani, Caryatid, ea. 1914 Limestone, 92.1 x 41.6 x 42.9cm Museum of Modern Art, New York, Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund Fig. 21 I Amedeo Modigliani, Standing Nude, ca.1912 Limestone, 162.8 x 33.2 x 29.6 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

objects like cups. He seeks beauty in an essential form that combines rigor and clarity with organic quality, and at the same time moves away

order to illustrate his programmatic conviction of the balance of opposites.

from the geometrization of form, the initial instrument of its realization.

This leads back to the phenomenon of the Eye of Horus in the Tate Gallery

Brancusi's series of Birds in Space and Modigliani's idol heads exemplify

and Philadelphia Museum of Art heads. Modigliani'sfamiliarity with the

these different artistic projects. But both artists were convinced that their

Horus symbol can be presumed not least in view of his friendship with

search for simplicity and beauty remained unfinished, an approximation

the Portuguese artist Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso. 57 In 1911, the latter's

that never reached its goal.56

studio was the site of the first exhibition of heads by Modigliani, installed

If Modigliani sought a"balance through opposing extremes;' then

with Brancusi's help (fig. 27). In the same studio Souza-Cardoso held a

beauty in his sculptures becomes manifest in the unity of the heteroge-

lecture for his friends in 1908 on the "Decorative Simplification of the Hi-

neous. He sought to realize it in works that are, as it were, resonant

eroglyphs and Their Influence on Modern Art:' 58 As a hieroglyph, the Eye

bodies of various cultural spaces. Occasionally, the stylistic differences

of Horus stands for "making whole and healing:'59 As the Egyptian myth

between individual forms-shape of the head, hairstyle, eyes, mouth,

recounts, during an argument Set tore out Horus's left eye, which was

nose, and so on-are so pronounced that Modigliani seems to be striving

then healed by Thot or Hathor and consequently became the symbol of

to combine the most diverse signs of beauty in a single head piece in

recuperated wholeness. 47

Fig. 22 I Amedeo Modigliani, Caryatid ca .1914 Gouache, chalk pastel, and pencil on paper, 140.7 x 66.5 cm Museum of FineArts, Houston, Gift of Oveta Culp Hobby

universal humanism of his Jewish faith. At the same time, he updated the myth of Zeuxis and the Maidens of Croton. Commissioned by the city of Croton to create paintings for atemple of Juno and in order to paint a

Fig. 23 I ConstantinBrancusi, Princess X, 1909-16 Marble, limestone pedestal, 56 x 28 x 23 cm Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Gift of Mrs. Olga N. Sheldoninmemory of Adams Bromley Sheldon

picture of Helen as the quintessence of female beauty, Zeuxis asked for the most beautiful virgins of the city as models, combining the finest individual features from each of them.60

The Eye of Horus, however, is only one aspect of Modigliani's head in the Tate Gallery. Other aspects, such as the overall shape of the head

48

V

and the wedge of the nose can hardly be linked with Egyptian art. The

In spite of the affinity in their sculptural production during their years of

nose's wedge form recalls much more Cycladic and African figures, as

friendship, and the similarity in the artistic interests guiding and accom-

well as Brancusi's heads, and proto-Cubist works by Picasso (cats. 113,

panying it, Modigliani and Brancusi were quite different people. Unlike

115). Characteristicof this work, as of Modigliani's sculpture in general, is

Brancusi, who came from amilieu of rural peasantry, Modigliani descended

a fusion of very diverse stimuli, an eclecticism of forms. This eclecticism

from a family of the urban bourgeoisie characterized by an intellectual

has specific implications: during the modernist crisis of the significance

life. While Modigliani was of an obliging, almost aristocratic habitus and

of the human figure Modigliani attempts to assemble in a single piece

increasingly cultivated a bohemian lifestyle, Brancusi, eight years his

signs of beauty from different cultures that supposedly were closer to

senior, for all his sociability and penchant for spontaneous burlesques,

origins. Seen from this perspective, Modigliani's sculptures are restorative

lived a more reclusive existence, more focused on his studio and averse

in a literal sense of the word, they take part in an artistic project of

to cafe life, which, he said, drains one'senergy. 61 While Brancusi created

restitutio. This project aimed at recovering a supposed former state of

works of great innovative radicalism even before 1920, not least in his

harmony and wholeness-or at least recollecting it. Acrucial background

wood sculpture, Modigliani, for all his modernity, was essentially atradi-

for such acollection or assembly of original signs of beauty may lie in the

tionalist to whom any form of avant-garde radicalism was alien.

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And yet a deep sympathy and friendship developed between the two."I like this man very much, give him my regards when you see him;' Modigliani wrote to Paul Alexandre about Brancusi in the late summer of 1909.62 Their friendship lasted only a few years, however, as did Modigliani'sintense involvement with sculpture itself. Modigliani'slifelong dream of working in marble, like the sculptors of the great Italian tradition from Tino di Camaino to Michelangelo, never really came true, and the

Fig. 24 IConstantinBrancusi, Shyness, ea. 1917 Limestone, 36.5 x 25 x 22 cm Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Bequest of Constantin Brancusi Fig. 25 IDiagram for Shyness (fig. 24) Fig. 26 IDiagram for Caryatid (cat. 32)

scope of his sculpture rea lized in softer limestone also remained limited. Around 1914-15 Modigliani ended his work as asculptor; as their artistic goals became increasingly divergent their relations were marked by a growing estrangement.

rage. His great dream was to be able to pay acraftsman to do the rough hewing of the block for him. Finally, he gave up on sculpture because of

In addition to financial circumstances, health and physical reasons

the great physical effort involved in direct carving:'63 Modigliani worked

have been cited for the end of Modigliani'ssculptural activity. Paul Alexan-

quickly. In the end, he did not have the temperament, the physical consti-

dre describes Modigliani's working method as asculptor vividly and quite

tution, nor the patience for the tedious, slow-moving, arduous work of

credibly: "For a long time he only made sketches and then tackled the

stone sculpture. Thus Brancusi's remark, "un vrai artiste fait des chases

block directly. If he made a mistake, he took another block and started

malgre lui," applies to the highlights of Modigliani's sculpture, albeit in a

again. When rough-hewing, he would work himself sore and fly into a

different way than to Brancusi'sown work.64

1

"Concerning Modigliani, I met him for the first time right in the rue du Delta in 1907, and there I introduced him shortly afterwards to Brancusi"; recollections of Paul Alexandre, quoted in Noel Alexandre, Der unbekannre Modigliani. Unveroffentlichte leichnungen, Papiere und Dokumente aus der ehemaligen Sammlung Paul Alexandre, trans. Silvia Porsche (Munich/Stungart, 1993), 43. On Brancusi and Modigliani in general, see Sanda Miller, Constantin Brancusi: ASurvey of His Work (Oxford, 1995), 123-41; and Oo'fna Lemny, 'Modigliani: ~experience de la sculpture aupres de Brancusi," Revue Roumaine d'Histoire del'Art, Serie Beaux-Arts 52 (2015): 111-17. ' On Madame Leone Ricou's salon see George Oprescu, "Un chapitre peu con nu de la vie sociale et artistique du Paris de la 'Belle Epoque'," Gazerte des Beaux-Arts 70 (1967): 121-24. Madame Ricou owned

3

three of Brancusi's sculptures, among them aMaiastra in polished bronze and aKiss, as well as aportrait of her by Modigliani; ibid., 124. Modigliani's daughter Jeanne supplies several indications of his "great ambition ... to be asculptor" and that this impulse "first came to him in Italy as early as 1902 and not in Paris in 1908"; Jeanne Modigliani, Modigliani: Man and Myth - Biography and Works of Italian Painter and Sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, trans. Esther Rowland Clifford (New York: Orion Press, 1958), 32. Oprescu too stresses that Modigliani came to Paris as asculptor and Brancusi gave him lessons in sculpture: "Modigliani, presqu'un adolescent ason arrivee aParis, riche, beau comme un jeune dieu, etait venu comme sculpteur et non pas comme peintre. Connaissant Brancusi et sa reputation, ii lui demanda, ou Brancusi lui offrit, des le1ons qui, avec le temps, s'accompagnerent

de le1ons de dessin." To what extent Oprescu's statement that Modigliani owed his"veritable mode d'expression'to-among other factors-Brancusi's "dessin ferme, souple et simple," remains to be shown. Oprescu, "Un chapitre;'l22ff. ' Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait of Brancusi, 1911, Parisot 14/11: the annotations "Apres" and "Livorno" appear in the lower left corner. The label "Brancusi;' like "Livorno" written with letters staggered under one another, is located on the right margin at the height of the mouth. The writing underneath is to me illegible. 1 Cf. cats. 304, 314, and 354 in Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modigliani. The dark oval frame in these ink drawings could be seen as adesign element, corresponding to the dark contours in Modigliani's line drawings.

49

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llya Ehrenburg, quoted in Werner Schrnalenbach, Amedeo Modig/Jani. Malerei, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen (Munich, 1991), 191. I disagree with Daina Lemny that the cello player on the front side of this painting is a depiction of Brancusi; see Lemny, "~experience," 11411. Reproduced as fig. 5.2 in Afrique aux origines de /'art moderne, ed. Ezio Bassani, exh. cat. GAM Galleria d'arte moderna Turin (Florence, 2004) See Philipe Dagen, "l'exemple egyptien: Matisse, Derain et Picasso entre fauvisme et cubisme (1905-1908)," Bulletin de la Societe de /'Histoire de /'Art Fran1ais (1984): 289-302. Derain was one of the artists who signed the guestbook of the exhibition of Modigliani and Souza-Cardoso in the latter's studio in 1911 See Amadeo de SouzaCardoso. Didlogo de Vanguardas, eds. Helena de Freitas et al., exhibition cat. Centro de Arte Moderna Jose de Azeredo Perdigao, Funda;ao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (Lisbon, 2006), 508. See Sidney Geist, "Brancusi," in "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art. Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, ed. William Rubin (New York, 1984), vol. II, 345. Peter Neagoe, The Saint of Montparnasse.· ANovel Based on the Life ofConstantin Brancusi (Philadelphia/New York, 1965), 12811.; on Brancusi and archaic Greek sculpture, see ibid., 95. For a pair of comparative images, see Schmalenbach, Amedeo Modigliani, 20. On Brancusi and Cycladic sculpture, see Friedrich Teja Bach, Shaping the Beginning: Modern Artists and the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean (Athens 2006), 9611.; on Modigliani and Cycladic sculpture, see Schmalenbach, ''Amedeo Modiglian/;'20, 26. On Brancusi's and Modigliani's interest in Buddhist art and that of the Khmer see Friedrich Teja Bach, Constantin Brancusi. Metamorphosen plastischer Form (Cologne, 1987), 376, note 559; Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modigliani, 92, 189, 238; Margit Rowell, "Brancusi: Timelessness in a Modern Mode;' in Constantin Brancusi, 1876-1951, eds. Friedrich Teja Bach et. al. (Cambridge, MA I London: 1995), 42-44. Cl. note 23. See Yaelle Biro, "Avant Charles Rattan. Commerce et diffusion des arts africains des annees 1900 aux annees 1920," in Charles Rattan. !'Invention des Arts 'Primitifs' (Paris, 2013), 43-57. On the construction of the "primitive" or "primitivism;' see Barbel KUster, Matisse und Picasso als Kulturreisende. Primitiv1smus und Anthropologie um 1900 (Berlin, 2003) "'The true impact of this art [tribal art, African . and Oceanian),' Brancusi told Muensterberger, 'occurred in Paris, possibly first at Apollinaire's [or) at Matisse's studio'"; Geist, "Brancusi,"348. When Brancusi visited Vienna in 1904 the holdings of the current Weltmuseum, including the collection of objects from sub-Saharan Africa, belonged to the Naturhistorisches Museum; not until the 1920s was the ethnographic collection housed in its own museum, as Ingrid Viehberger, Naturhistorisches Museum Vienna, kindly informed me on March 25, 2021 On the dating of these caryatids to 1914-26 or1915-43 and afterwards, see Bach, Metamorphosen, catalogue raisonne, 119, 223, 283. See Bach, Metamorphosen, 205. Brancusi, quoted in Geist, "Brancusi," 362. Brancusi applied to the school of applied arts in Craiova in 1894 and was accepted in the woodcarving department in August 1895. Barbu Brezianu, Brancusi en Roumanie (Bucharest, 1998), 16. The Portrait of Gheorghe Chitu is from 1898; The First Step, his earliest wood sculpture, dates from 1912-13. The difference in time between both works is the clearest indication that Brancusi's wood sculptures did not follow directly on his early dealing with wood as amaterial. "After the frank Africanizing of his [Brancusi's) first wood carvings, it is an essential abstractness that is awakened in him by tribal art"; Geist, "Brancusi," 362. For aphotograph by Charles Sheeler from 1919 depicting The Prodigal Son together with two figures from a reliquary of the Fang on the mantel in Louise and Walter Arensberg's apartment, see Biro, "Avant Charles Rattan,'' 55. "Modigliani introduced me to African art, not the other way around. He took meto the Trocadero Museum, where he was truly in raptures about the Angkor exhibition in the west wing"; Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modigliani, 67. See also Curt Stoermer, "Erinnerung an Modigliani," Der Querschnitt11, 6 (June 1931): 389. Brancusi's Infinite Column is dated no earlier than 1918. Apreliminary form, such as the column in The Child in the World, Mobile Group (1917) could be dated to 1914 at the earliest. In addition, the strip on the right side of the portrait of Alexandre does not depict abody, but a black zig-zag pattern (with the same color inside and outside the zig-zag), as well as the accompanying vertical black lines on the

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47 46

right and left. This is probably awall hanging (or at least part of it) by Moroccan Berbers, which was in the possession of Dr. Alexandre. "According to Mme. Brefort;'the daughter o/Dr. Alexandre, "it is very possible that, topaint the vertical band and the motif on it, Modigliani was inspired by a hanging or drape of Moroccan or African origin which was in the house where Dr. Alexandre was living at the time when Modigliani did his portrait"; Geist,"Brancusi,''356. Geist's thesis (p. 357), that the motif of this wall hanging "may, therefore, well be the germ of [the) Endless Column," does not seem plausible to me. In addition to the Beni Ourain, another type of textile strip in particular could be considered, one seen placed horizontally in the background of a photograph of Jeanne Hebuterne (fig. p. 206). Unfortunately, these textiles have not yet been identified. If the portrait of Paul Alexandre does indeed depict such astrip, then Modigliani has abstracted it considerably. Alan G. Wilkinson, "Paris and London: Modigliani, Lipchitz, Epstein and Gaudier-Brzeska,''in "Prim1tiVism"in20th Century Art, vol. II, 42011. On these drawings in the Kupferstichkabinett Basel, see Wilkinson, "Paris and London," 421; Mason Klein, "Modigliani against the Grain,'' in Modigliani: Beyond the Myth, ed. Mason Klein, exh. cat. The Jewish Museum New York (New York, 2004), 167. See for example Dagen, "l'exemple egyptien,'' 289-302. On Brancusi's interest-as reported by Cecilia Cutzesco-Storck-in Egyptian "monumentalite, leur puissance d'abstraction et de synthese,'' see Barbu Brezianu, "Pages inedites de la correspondance de Brancusi," Revue Roumaine d'Histoire de /'Art (1964): 1, 2,398, note 21. In contrast to African art, Brancusi appreciated Egyptian art in later years as well: in 1938 he visited Egypt and enthusiastically remarked as late as Novernber1952 on the Great Sphinx:"t ii piu magnifico monumento che esista, grande come una casa, ma questo non importa, quel che conta sono le proporzioni, ii numero nascosto"; Goran Schildt, "Colloqui con Brancusi,'' La Biennale di Venezia, 8, 32 (July-September 1958) 25. Rowell, "Timelessness in aModern Mode," 41. Anna Akhmatova, Poem ohne Held, quoted in Schmalenbach, "Amedeo Modigliani;'184. See Edith Balas, "The Art of Egypt as Modigliani's Stylistic Source," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 123, 97 (February 1981): 87-94; and ibid., figs.1, 2. Henri Matisse, fcrits et propos sur /'art, ed. Dominique Fourcade (Paris, 1972), 121. Guillaume Apollinaire, quoted in Apollinaire zur Kunst. Texte und Kritiken, 1905-/918, ed. Hajo DUchting (Cologne, 1989), 175. Kuster, Matisse und Picasso, 82. On the contemporary diffusion of such acomparative approach, see ibid., 9411. The Head ofaGirl was reproduced as fig. 42 in This Quarter, 1925.The caption states:"Premiere pierre directe, 190"; on this, see Bach, Metamorphosen, catalogue raisonne, 78. Friedrich Teja Bach, Constantin Brancusi. Metamorphosen plastischer Form (Cologne, 1987), 119. The drawing is reproduced in La Dation Brancusi, dessins et archives, eds. Marielle Tabart and Dolna Lemny, exh. cat. Centre Pompidou Paris (Paris, 2003), 93. On the topicality of the "Great Female" in modernist sculpture, see Friedrich Teja Bach, "Giacomettis 'Grande Figure Abstraite' und seine Platz-Projekte. Oberlegungen zum Verhaltnis von Betrachter und Figur,'' Pantheon 38, 3(July-September 19801: 27111. On male caryatids or atlases, which in general were geometrically stricter, see Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modigliani, 192, figs.135-40. On Modigliani and the topic of female nudes, see Griselda Pollock, "Modigliani and the Bodies of Art: Carnality, Attentiveness, and the Modernist Struggle," in Klein, Beyond the Myth, 55-73. On Brancusi's temple project, see Bach, Metamorphosen, 91-97. On Modigliani's temple idea, see Alfred Werner, Modig/Jani, der Bildhauer, ed. Peter Dietschi (Geneva, 1962), 42. On Brancusi and the esoteric, see Bach, Metamorphosen, 141-208. Gotthart Jedlicka, Modigliani, 1884-1920 (Erlenbach, ZH, 1953), 38; see also Bach, Metamorphosen, 373, note 473. On the Jewish background of Modigliani's family and the significance of the teachings ofRabbi Elia Benamozegh for the religious humanism of the Sephardic Jews in Livorno, see Klein, Beyond the Myth, 4-6. Thus Modigliani, for example, placed on aportrait of awoman titled "Venus" (1909-10) "the alchemist symbols for Mercury, Venus, and salt"; Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modigliani, 93. "Ainsi que le serpent se glisse hors de sa peau ainsi tu te delivreras du peche l;l l'equilibre par les exces contra ires 6. l'homme considere sous trois aspects* Aourl" Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modig/Jani, 9; see also Klein, Beyond the Myth, 14f. See Bach, Metamorphosen, 144. The postcard addressed to "Monsieur I Constantine Brancusi, sculpteur

I 54 A. du Montparnasse I Paris" with the accompanying text "Mon vieux Branc I Dans un moi [sic) je vais revenir I a bient6t done I et avec impatience le plaisir de I te recauser I ami Modigliani"is reproduced in Marielle Tabart, !'Atelier Brancusi. La Collection (Paris, 1997), 227. See the remark by Paul Alexandre that Modigliani "brought photographs from his two trips to Italy of the Camposanto in Pisa, as he admired the cemetery very much"; Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modigliani, 67. 49 "Mais on peut dire que la geometrie est aux arts plastiques ce que la grammaire est al'artde l'ecrivain"; Guillaume Apollinaire, "La Peinture Nouvelle," Les Soirees de Paris 1, 3(1912): 90. " Ludwig Meidner, "The Young Modigliani: Some Memories,'' The Burlington Magazine 82, 981 (April 1943) 88. 51 "Le Beaux c'est l'armonie des diferants choses contraires [sic)"; Brancusi, quoted in La Dation Brancusi, 93. 51 See note 46. 53 Schmalenbach, "Amedeo Modigliani,''23. 54 Walter Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, vols.1-2, eds. Rolfnedemann and Hermann Schweppenhauser (Frankfurt am Main, 1990), 661. 55 ''l'art ne doit pas etre regarde comme une savoir fair-elle doit nous representer le beaux tel qu'il est dans son cadre et sa place [sic):' Brancusi, quoted, in the original spelling, in La Dation Brancusi, 92. 56 See Brancusi's statement from 1936: "My Birds are aseries of different objects on a central research which remains the same;' quoted in Athena C. Ta cha, "Brancusi,'' The Art Journa/22, 4(summer 1963): 241. Asked about his Bird in Space, Brancusi replied at the end of his life, "That is my 'Bird'. I have been working at it for forty years. One day I shall reach figure-one with it and then it will be done"; quoted in Russell W Howe, "The Man Who Doesn't Like Michelangelo,'' Apollo 49 (May 1949): 127. See Modigliani's comments to Paul Alexandre from April 23, 1913 "The fulfilment is near ... I will work entirely in marble"; Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modigliani, 237; see also Paul Alexandre's remark on this topic "His entire life Modigliani searched for afinal form that he, I believe, never found,''ibid. ~ "It was during this year that Amadeo would meet his closest artistic friend, Amedeo Modigliani"; Freitas, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, 440. Brancusi owned acopy, with adedication, of Souza-Cardoso's ea ta log XX dessins; see L'Atelier Brancusi 1997, 245. 58 In an interview from 1970, Domingos Rebelo reported, ''l'atelier d'Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso .. devint notre centre de reunions . Soucieux de donner aces rencontres uncertain niveau intellectuel et artistique, nous convinmes de traiter chaque semaine un sujet original. Amadeo disserte sur 'la simplification decorative des hieroglyphes et son influence dans l'art moderne"'; quoted in Paulo Ferreira, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, peintre portugais, 7887-1918 (Paris, 1995), 41. 59 Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson, eds, Reclams Lexikon des a/ten Agypten, trans. Ingrid Rein and Marianne Schnittger (Stuttgart, 1998), 123. The Gardiner list assigns the number D10 to the hieroglyph of the Eye of Horus. 60 In this context, see the thesis of Werner Spies and of Carsten-Peter Warncke, which also relates Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) with the topos of Zeuxis and the Maidens of Croton: Pablo Picasso. Sammlung Marina Picasso, ed. Werner Spies, exh. cat. Haus der Kunst, Munich (Munich, 1981), 23; Carsten-Peter Warncke, Pablo Picasso, 1887-l973, vol. 1(Cologne, 1991), 162. 61 "He [Brancusi) would exclaim against cafe life and say that one lost one's force there"; Jacob Epstein, Let There Be Sculpture. An Autobiography (London, 1940), 63. 61 "J'aime beaucoup cet homme-la et salue-le de ma part si tu le vois"; Modigliani, quoted in Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modigliani, 94. 63 Alexandre, Der unbekannte Modigliani, 65. 64 La Dation Brancusi, 94.

Fig. 27 I Photograph of the first exhibition of Modigliani's heads in the studio of the painter Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, 1911

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The Birth of the Caryatid: The Simplification of the Subject This simplification culminates in the caryatids. Inherited from load-bearing female figures of Greco-Roman antiquity, the caryatid is a vertical figure, If today primitivisms are seen as a range of influences that affected part

sometimes a mere face, viewed frontally or from the side, highly hieratic

of Western society between the mid-nineteenth century and the 1930s,

and deliberately inexpressive: it is a mask that conceals an individual's

and if it is preferable to present the phenomenon in light of a multitude

true nature. Modigliani'squest was directed at one unique purpose: the

of contextual, social, political, and cultural factors, it remains difficult to

ideal carved figure-one that would allow for the most intense human

address the question of the primitivist influences on an artist without fo-

introspection through an anonymous and inexpressive face. Paul Alexandre

cusing predominantly on aesthetic and visual issues. In studying this

mentioned this idea of simplification in reference to Modigliani as early

question, several criteria need defining: the purely visual factor, which

as 1907:"In these drawings there is invention, simplification and purifica-

affects the form of an artwork and the choice of its subject, stylistic

tion of the form. This is why art negre [traditional African, Oceanian, and

effects, and details; the emotional criterion, characterized by the feeling

Native American arts] appealed to him. Modigliani had reconstructed

that emerges from a work of sculpture or painting and the sensitivity of

the lines of the human face in his own way .... He enjoyed any attempt

the bond it forges with the viewer and the intensity conveyed by the

to simplify line and was interested in it for his personal development:'1

image; and then the social criterion, which relates to the environment

Aphenomenon that was at once social and artistic, simplification

primitivist artists shared, and which may be perceived in painting, for ex-

was also taken up by Modigliani's contemporaries. In the second half of

ample, as astylistic resemblance between artists.

the nineteenth century, artists had already started a process of reducing

If just one aesthetic feature had to be chosen for all three of these

the subject to essentials. Primitivists too joined this tendency, whose

criteria of study, the obvious choice would be the simplification of the

hallmark was a singular flexibility allowing each painter or sculptor to

subject. For the earliest theorist of primitivism, the art historian Robert

apply his or her own version of simplification; one might even speak of

Goldwater, simplification was key to the revolution in art that took place

artists attaining an identity through this process. Modigliani arrived at

during this period. It results from the desire to flout the aesthetic norms

his caryatid in this manner; Picasso experienced several such influences,

of the time and treat the artwork as a pure means of expression. Such

including in the cubist period; Brancusi produced his Wisdom of the Earth;

simplification can be achieved through a range of expedients, such as

Derain embarked on a return to classicism before the war that was punc-

schematizing the composition and reducing the subject to astrict minimum.

tuated by simplification; and this is to name only a few examples. Its

Goldwater's blunder, however, was to argue that simplification had no

effect in sculpture is no less striking than in painting. Simplification

connection with non-European art (considered as "primitive" at the time)

perhaps expresses best the concept of reflection in Western art, making

and that it served merely as acatalyst for visual ideas. In this view, primi-

use of a"primitive object" simplified to the extreme, "carefully depilated,

tivism was merely atransient phase in the development of an artist'siden-

deburred, stripped, and scoured;' as Georges Henri Riviere, then curator

tity, an influence that seemingly waned as early as 1914 with the gradual

at the Musee d'Ethnographie du Trocadero, put it.

move away from what was then referred to as the "tribal arts:' But Gold-

It is intriguing to note how this simplification (the effect is greater

water was also mistaken in asserting that contact in the very early twentieth

in sculpture) drew inspiration as much from the ancient Mediterranean

century between various European artists and the arts of Africa, Asia,

arts as from those of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. As non-European

Oceania, and the Americas apparently left little lasting trace: Modigliani's

artistic traditions were being taken up, inspiration from Etruscan, Egyptian,

output until his death in 1920 offers proof to the contrary.

and Greek art also redoubled in intensity. While Egyptian art is patently

For Modigliani, simplification formed part of what is often called

visible in Brancusi for instance (fig.13, p. 44), figures from archaic Greece

the "theory of the mask." Even before his encounter with extra-European

are more noticeable in Picasso and Modigliani (fig. 1). Some early twen-

and ancient art, Modigliani's paintings heralded this simplification with

tieth-century Hellenists even termed the early period "primitivist:' The

atreatment of the face that hints at the mask, as is clear, for example, in

archaeologist Waldemar Deonna uses the term"primitivism"in describing

two paintings from 1907-8, Nude with a Hat and "The Jewish Woman."

archaic Greek art governed by the same aesthetic principles as those of 55

stand. As he once wrote to his friend Oscar Ghiglia in 1901: "we [artists] have different rights from normal people, because we have different needs that place us above ... their moralitY:'4 Taking into account all these criteria, the role of the "primitive" object in the Western vision of art remains difficult to define. For modern artists, the influence of its aesthetic qualities resulted as frequently in borrowings of form and material as in afar more general and diffuse imitation.5All in all, simplification is then the common denominator of all primitivist works. It distills the plastic effects required to create ageneral sense of the work and incorporates distinct influences from the "primitive" arts visible in certain details of modern artworks. Simplification is achieved by techniques imitating nature and is conveyed through dramatic themes derived from the "fundamental passions of existence." In an artwork whose subject is pared down to fundamentals, the viewer is confronted by an immediate presentation, creating a rarefied space in which only the "symbolic" quality of the figures appears. The figures are basically a means of intensifying the image, thereby reducing the psychic distance between the work and its beholder to a minimum. Faced with a single action, with asingle figure dominating the work, the eye seizes on what is essential. 6 Modigliani kept faith with this vision until the end of his life: one of his chief artistic references is the vertical, stable, almost immutable figure. While it occurs as early as 1907-8 in the caryatids, it continues in portraits that feature a single, immobile, central figure whose Fig.1 J Kleobis and Biton, archaic kouroi, ea. 580 BCE Archaeological Museum, Delphi

gaze is immersed in that of the viewer. Recent studies on color perception and the use of eye-trackingthat is, recording eye movements over a painting by Modigliani-show

"Egypt and the Orient. ... It stiffens the bodies into astatuesque frontal-

how the viewer's attention focalizes on the center of the figures-in

ity.... It unites in the same entity organs viewed from the front and in

other words, on the unique, central, and unvarying subject of the work.

profile, to avoid foreshortening it ignores perspective, the modeling is

As Modigliani's oeuvre unfolded, the reference to the simplified non-

2

superficial:' Though this analysis, proposed in 1937, is impregnated with

European or archaic figure underwent adaptations, following a clear,

acharacteristic condescension for the "primitive" arts, it does demonstrate

linear path from the anonymous figure of the caryatid to that of an iden-

the point to which the traditions of archaic Greek art overlapped with

tifiable but "primitivized" portrait. Thus, over the course of his oeuvre,

those of non-European productions. Dating from the second millennium

the subject portrayed developed into a mask or totem. The erroneous

BCE, the art of the Cycladic civilization appears all the more "primitive"

view of Goldwater, who also argued that artists after World War One be-

since it is prehistoric-these two developmental stages of civilization

came interested in other forms of"primitivism"-in folk art or in art pro-

being considered almost on apar at that period.

duced by children or the insane-nevertheless retains a core of truth;

The characteristic condescension and contempt of the era for the

Modigliani was the only artist to remain wedded to the simplified figure.

"primitive" arts had repercussions for the process of simplification. By im-

Although Picasso became the cynosure of primitivism, he had distanced

itating the art of far-flung places, the primitivists left their work open to

himself from its influence by the time World War One broke out.

instant rejection and mockery. Certain artists engaged in simplification to make astatement; developments in the artistic influences on how the body and the face were depicted equated to adopting a"primitive"3 stance and to joining acommunity apart, one separate from the"modern"world. This analysis is all the more pertinent for Modigliani, who had an exalted sense both of himself as aperson and his quality as an artist who would convey a message that the common run could not hope to under56

' Noel Alexandre, The Unknown Modigliani, trans. C. Baker and M. Raeburn (London: Royal Academy of Arts/Fonds Mercator, 1994), 65. 1 Waldemar Deonna, "L'evolution de l'art grec," Revue des ftudesGrecques 50, fascicle 238 (October-Decemberl937): 496. 3 Philippe Dagen, Primitivismes. Une invention moderne (Paris: Gallimard, 2019), 134. • Letter no. 5printed by Ambrogio Ceroni, Amedeo Modigliani peintre, followed by "memoirs"by Lunia Czechowska (Milan: Edition del Milione, 1958).18. 5 Carlo Severi, "L'empathie primitiviste," Images Re-vues, special number 1, 2008. 6 Severi, "L'empathie primitiviste."

1IAmedeo Modigliani Large Red Bust, 1913 Private collection

21 Female island idol, early Cycladic, 2800-2700 BCE Sculpture Department, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

3 IAmedeo Modigliani Male Nude with Laterally Extended Arms, ea. 1911 Paul Alexandre Family, courtesy of Nathanson Fine Art, London

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4 IAmedeo Modigliani Female Nude with Bent Arms and Tattooed Face, ea. 1911 Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen

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5IConstantin Brancusi Wisdom of the Earth, 1908 David Grob Collection

60

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6IAmedeo Modigliani Kneeling Caryatid (Anna Akhmatova ?) , 1911 Private collection

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7IConstantin Brancusi The First Step, ea. 1914 DavidGrob Collection 8IConstantin Brancusi Study for The First Step, 1913 Museum of Modern Art, New York, Benjamin Scharps and David Scharps Fund

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9 IPablo Picasso Harlequin Putting On Makeup, 1905 Private collection of Marina Ruiz-Picasso

10 I Pablo Picasso Female Bust (Fernande), 1906 Musee National Picasso, Paris

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11 IPablo Picasso Boy in Short Trousers, 1906 Private collection, courtesy Richard Nagy Ltd., London 12IPablo Picasso Standing Female Nude (study for Les Demoisel/es d'Avignon), 1906-7 Musee National Picasso, Paris

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I BI Amedeo Modigliani Chaim Soutine, 1916 Jonas Nener Endowment Fund

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14 IAmedeo Modigliani Chaim Soutine, 1916 Jonas Netter Endowment Fund

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