L'Italo-Americano

THURS DAY,   JANUARY  10,   2013 L'Italo-Americano PAGE  17 Explaining Modigliani's Success The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco will host a lecture by Kenneth Wayne on the great Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, next Tuesday, January 15, 2013. A leading expert on Modigliani and a specialist in modern and contemporary art, Dr. Wayne will present an illustrated lecture on the Italian artist's life, work and personality. Famous for his elongated forms, graceful portraits, and lush nudes, Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) is among the most loved of the extraordinary group of international artists who lived in Montparnasse in the early 20th century. Dr. Wayne, who also serves on the Advisory Board of the Musée Rodin in Paris, is the author of the book "Modigliani and the Artists of Montparnasse." This striking volume provides a serious examination of Modigliani's work with extensive new documentation. Wayne moves beyond the romantic myths that have sprung up around the artist's tragically brief life to provide a fuller, richer under- Amedeo Modigliani standing of his arts as well as the role of Montparnasse in the development of modern art. In addition to 64 paintings, sculptures and drawings by Modigliani, the volume features works by other Montparnasse artists such as Brancusi, de Chirico, Soutine and Picasso. The book also includes excerpts from a novelette written by one of Modigliani's lovers about their experiences together. This volume provides a serious examination of Modigliani's work with fresh documentation. Amedeo Modigliani was born into a Jewish family in Livorno, Tuscany, and was known primarily as a figurative artist, who became famous for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form. Modigliani is known to have drawn and painted from a very early age, and thought himself "already a painter", his mother wrote, even before beginning formal studies. At the age of fourteen, while sick with typhoid fever, he raved in his delirium that he wanted, above Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Guillaume Seated, 1916 all else, to see the paintings in the Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi in Florence. His mother promised that she would take him to Florence herself, the moment he was recovered. Not only did she fulfil this promise, but she also undertook to enroll him with the best painting master in Livorno, Guglielmo Micheli. Modigliani continued what was to be a lifelong infatuation with life drawing, enrolling in the Accademia di Belle Arti (Scuola Libera di Nudo, or "Free School of Nude Studies") in Florence, later studying at the Istituto di Belle Arti in Venice. In 1906, Modigliani moved to Paris, then the focal point of the avant-garde. In fact, his arrival at the centre of artistic experimentation coincided with the arrival of two other foreigners who were also to leave their marks upon the art world: Gino Severini and Juan Gris. When he first arrived in Paris, he wrote home regularly to his mother, he sketched his nudes at the Académie Colarossi, and he drank wine in moderation. He was at that time considered by those who knew him as a bit reserved. Within a year of arriving in Paris, however, his demeanour and reputation had changed dramatically. Modigliani worked at a furious pace. He was constantly sketching, making as many as a hundred drawings a day. However, many of his works were lost—destroyed by him as inferior, left behind in his frequent changes of address, or given to girlfriends who did not keep them. In 1909, Modigliani returned home to Livorno, sickly and tired from his wild lifestyle, but soon he was back in Paris, this time renting a studio in Montparnasse, where he lived, until his death, as sculptor and painter, producing and selling most of the paintings that later became his most popular and valued works. Kenneth Wayne is a Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, the source of the exhibit, where he is in charge of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art. Previously, he was the Joan Whitney Payson Curator at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine. He has also worked in the curatorial departments at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the University Art Museum at the University of California at Berkeley. Among the many exhibitions he has organized are Impressions of the Riviera: Monet, Renoir, Matisse and their Contemporaries and Picasso, Braque, Leger, and the Cubist Spirit, 1919-1939. Modigliani, a lecture by Kenneth Wayne Tuesday, January 15, 2013 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Italian Cultural Institute, 814 Montgomery street, San CONSOLATO GENERALE D'ITALIA SAN FRANCISCO Console Generale: Mauro Battocchi Segreteria: Anna Clara Maselli (segr.sanfrancisco@esteri.it) 2590 Webster StreetSan Francisco, CA 94115 Telefono: (415) 292-9200 Fax: (415) 931-7205 E-mail: it.sanfrancisco@esteri.it ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA Direttore: Paolo Barlera 814 Montgomery Street San Francisco, California 94133 Tel.: 415 788 7142 Fax: 1 415 788 6389 Email: contact.sanfrancisco@ esteri.it COM.IT.ES. - COMITATO DEGLI ITALIANI ALL'ESTERO President: Romana Bracco 870 Market Street, Suite 815San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415) 398-5312 Fax: (415) 398-3345 Email: SanFranComites@aol.com MUSEO ITALO AMERICANO Managing Director: Paula Bagnatori 204 Bay St # C, San Francisco, CA(415) 673-2200 Phone: (415) 673-2200 Fax: (415) 673-2292 E-mail: sfmuseo@sbcglobal.net ITALIAN  AMERICAN  SOCIAL  CLUB  OF  SAN FRANCISCO Manager: Julie Clima 25 Russia Ave.San Francisco, CA 94112 Phone: 415.585.8059 Fax: 415.585.8060 Email: info@iascsf.com SAN FRANCISCO ITALIAN ATHLETIC CLUB President: Al Cipollina Administrator: Rich Baldoni-Denney 1630 Stockton St., San Francisco, CA 94133 General Information: (415) 781-0165 Fax: (415) 781-0167 Office: (415) 781-0166 (Office hours are 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. M-F, Pacific Time), email: administration@sfiac.org ORDER SONS OF ITALY IN AMERICA State President: Maria Fassio Pignati State Recording Secretary: Arlene Nunziati (Rlene49@pacbell.net) 5051 Mission Street San Francisco, California 94112-3473 Phone: (415) 586-1316 Fax:(415) 586-4786 Email: sonsofitalyca@aol.com IL CENACOLO - ITALIAN CULTURAL CLUB President: Jim Boitano Membership Chair: Ronald Derenzi (membri@ilcenacolosf.org) Post Office Box 475119 San Francisco, CA 94147-5119 Email ilpresidente@ilcenacolosf.org ITALIAN AMERICAN HERITAGE FOUNDATION President: Ken Borelli 425 No. Fourth StreetSan Jose, CA 95112www.iahfsj.org Phone: 408-293-7122. Fax: 408-293-7154. Facebook: Italian American Heritage Foundation ITALIAN COMMUNITY SERVICES President: Luigi E. Pinotti Executive Director: Anna Maria Pierini (ampierini @italiancs.com) 678 Green Street, San Francisco, Ca 94133 Tel. (415)362-6423 Fax (415) 362-6423 E-mail info@italiancs.com - www.italiancommunityservices.org

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