Ferdinand
Modigliani Style
12x9 oil on Canvas
Portrait painting after the style of Modigliani... another assignment from art class. Amedeo Modigliani was a contemporary of Picasso, and like Picasso, Modigliani was influenced by African Art. He started out as a sculptor, creating long necked busts with blank almond shaped eyes, which carried over into his paintings. His recognizable style of elongated necks and vacant eyed sitters created memorable portraits that contained an essence of the model sitting before him, (it is suggested that he even painted from photographs.)
Although some of his portraits were painted with eyes, the majority were painted with the haunting vacant eye shapes... embedded into the long thin faces perched atop the rather giraffe looking necks. After studying and viewing a number of his portraits I found that I did not notice the absence of eyes... my mind seemed to fill in the blanks.
Both Modigliani and Picasso were influenced by African art... each of them absorbing and utilizing this influence in their own way, creating very different and unique artistic visions.
NFS