The Unknown Modigliani: Drawings from the Collection of Paul Alexandre

Rating:
Summary: This is a big book.
Review: I never really had to draw artistically, but I spent years drafting mechanical objects, carefully placing straight lines in proportionally accurate positions. Having a book like this is much less embarrassing than signing up for a drawing class and having personal responsibility for drawings which don't look good, for whatever reason. The ability to draw is a major basis for art, as far as I am concerned, and a lot of the mechanics are obvious once a technique is successfully demonstrated. Anything you see in this book can be believed, and possibly even understood, artistically. This book also provides a short history in art, mainly about one person in Paris from 1906 to 1913, who had a friend who told him "Don't throw anything away." (Page 9 explains how "Paul Alexandre begged his friend not to destroy a single sketchbook, a single study.") There are, in addition to hundreds of drawings, some oil paintings reproduced in this book. On page 88 is one which was bought by the author's father because the person who commissioned The Amazon, 1909, rejected it (she might have thought that the eyes were too large; "The Baroness did not like her portrait very much and recognized herself in it still less when Modigliani decided at the last moment that he had to repaint her red jacket in yellow." p. 89), so it was purchased by Paul Alexandre.

First, I am impressed that black and white photographs from that era can be reproduced so large and well. The people (see pages 14, 18, 20, 33, 45, 49, 51, 72, 79, 107) and places in Paris (pages 22, 36, 68, 70, 71, 81), postcards from Livorno, Modigliani's native town (pp. 108-9) and even a book by Nietzsche, Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra on page 63, fill these pages nicely. The manuscript notes reproduced on some pages are usually in French. Part of one is translated as "Equilibrium by means of opposite extremes." (p. 92). Earlier it was mentioned that Modigliani was not the type of person who kept track of things in a journal, so "these brief lines are particularly precious to us, even if, in the absence of any other documentation, we are unable to understand their full meaning." (pp. 92-93).

Secondly, there are explanations of the elements of Modigliani's sculptures and pictures. One feature which he drew a number of times, caryatids, are defined at the beginning of a section discussing those drawings. "Another setting which is theatrical in character is created by the architectural use of caryatids in place of pilasters or columns to support the entablature of a building." (p. 189) There are foldout pages of the drawings which follow, so that, after seeing the figures on page 193, and turning to page 194, the next page which is visible is page 199, which lists the contents of pages 195-198, which are hidden until 194 and 199 are folded out to reveal the four pictures inside side by side. This might be set up this way because plate 108 shows a Hermaphrodite caryatid, frontal view, which was supposed to be hidden from anyone who didn't know where to look for it. The other ones might have been hidden because they were smiling, or too luscious, and placed there as a special reward for those who happened to be reading the book slowly enough to discover them.

Thirdly, the next section, Sculptural heads, starting on page 237, doesn't have much to say, but the comparison of the drawings of Head in left profile runs from pages 255 to 263, without numbers on some pages. Plate 194, Head in left profile with earring; Blue crayon heightened with red gouache, is large and colorful. In the later sections of the book, there is a study with blue ink on page 368, and my favorite color in the book is the blue ink on pages 389, 390, and 392. This is, again, a series with pages that fold out, and the comparison with other pictures makes the blue particularly splendiferous. This book has 463 pages, and you need to read slowly enough to find them all.

Rating:
Summary: This is a big book.
Review: I never really had to draw artistically, but I spent years drafting mechanical objects, carefully placing straight lines in proportionally accurate positions. Having a book like this is much less embarrassing than signing up for a drawing class and having personal responsibility for drawings which don't look good, for whatever reason. The ability to draw is a major basis for art, as far as I am concerned, and a lot of the mechanics are obvious once a technique is successfully demonstrated. Anything you see in this book can be believed, and possibly even understood, artistically. This book also provides a short history in art, mainly about one person in Paris from 1906 to 1913, who had a friend who told him "Don't throw anything away." (Page 9 explains how "Paul Alexandre begged his friend not to destroy a single sketchbook, a single study.") There are, in addition to hundreds of drawings, some oil paintings reproduced in this book. On page 88 is one which was bought by the author's father because the person who commissioned The Amazon, 1909, rejected it (she might have thought that the eyes were too large; "The Baroness did not like her portrait very much and recognized herself in it still less when Modigliani decided at the last moment that he had to repaint her red jacket in yellow." p. 89), so it was purchased by Paul Alexandre.

First, I am impressed that black and white photographs from that era can be reproduced so large and well. The people (see pages 14, 18, 20, 33, 45, 49, 51, 72, 79, 107) and places in Paris (pages 22, 36, 68, 70, 71, 81), postcards from Livorno, Modigliani's native town (pp. 108-9) and even a book by Nietzsche, Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra on page 63, fill these pages nicely. The manuscript notes reproduced on some pages are usually in French. Part of one is translated as "Equilibrium by means of opposite extremes." (p. 92). Earlier it was mentioned that Modigliani was not the type of person who kept track of things in a journal, so "these brief lines are particularly precious to us, even if, in the absence of any other documentation, we are unable to understand their full meaning." (pp. 92-93).

Secondly, there are explanations of the elements of Modigliani's sculptures and pictures. One feature which he drew a number of times, caryatids, are defined at the beginning of a section discussing those drawings. "Another setting which is theatrical in character is created by the architectural use of caryatids in place of pilasters or columns to support the entablature of a building." (p. 189) There are foldout pages of the drawings which follow, so that, after seeing the figures on page 193, and turning to page 194, the next page which is visible is page 199, which lists the contents of pages 195-198, which are hidden until 194 and 199 are folded out to reveal the four pictures inside side by side. This might be set up this way because plate 108 shows a Hermaphrodite caryatid, frontal view, which was supposed to be hidden from anyone who didn't know where to look for it. The other ones might have been hidden because they were smiling, or too luscious, and placed there as a special reward for those who happened to be reading the book slowly enough to discover them.

Thirdly, the next section, Sculptural heads, starting on page 237, doesn't have much to say, but the comparison of the drawings of Head in left profile runs from pages 255 to 263, without numbers on some pages. Plate 194, Head in left profile with earring; Blue crayon heightened with red gouache, is large and colorful. In the later sections of the book, there is a study with blue ink on page 368, and my favorite color in the book is the blue ink on pages 389, 390, and 392. This is, again, a series with pages that fold out, and the comparison with other pictures makes the blue particularly splendiferous. This book has 463 pages, and you need to read slowly enough to find them all.