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George Bellows, 'Stag at Sharkey’s' (detail), 1909. Oil on canvas, 92 x 112.6 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection. Photo © The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Sydney Lee, 'The Sleeping Square' (detail), 1928. Aquatint, mezzotint and roulette. Private collection. © estate of the artist.
Sir Hugh Casson PRA, 'Elephant and Rhinoceros Pavilion, London Zoo'(detail), c.1971. © Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Sidney Nolan, 'Ned Kelly' (detail), 1946. Enamel paint on composition board. 90.8 x 121.5 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Gift of Sunday Reed, 1977.
6 October 2006
The Montparnasse section of Paris where Modigliani settled was known for being extraordinarily international, cosmopolitan and sophisticated, and its artists tried to create a universal avant-garde art beyond boundaries and borders. Modigliani embodied the area's qualities more fully than any of its other residents. Born to an Italian father and a French mother, he looked to art from many cultures and periods for inspiration: Cycladic, African and Cambodian sculpture; Oceanic art; Michelangelo and the Italian tradition; English Pre-Raphaelitism; French Impressionism; Cézanne, Gauguin and Henri Rousseau; Symbolism, Cubism, Fauvism and Vorticism; as well as his own Jewish background. Dr Kenneth Wayne, Chief Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY, addresses the rich and various influences that combined to make Modigliani's art so consistently engaging.
Reynolds Room, RA; 6.30–7.30pm; £14/£6 students (incl. exhibition entry & drink), £10 (incl. a drink)
