Friday, March 9, 2012

Modigliani Challenge - Attempt to Copy Modigliani Bust: Arrggh!





This is the work by Modigliani I attempted to copy. Oh, what a mess I made of it. I tried to duplicate it in clay, thinking it would be relatively easy. His work is just so beautiful with wonderful planes. It's chiseled in stone and it emulates African masks. I've always loved it. I have good taste since it sold at Southeby's for $36 million dollars. As always, the sad thing is Modigliani died at the age 36 of tuberculosis and other assorted addictions. He was not really recognized until after his death. His girlfriend was pregnant and she committed suicide a few days after his death. I just don't see the justice in the exhorbitant prices paid for art when the poor artist never saw a cent of it during his lifetime. Anyway, back to my lousy copy: It was so hard to do because when I tried to make corrections on one side I smooshed the other side and had to correct that then recorrect, etc. It came out looking more like the witch from the Wizard of Oz. Everything is off, off, off: the nose, the neck, the eyes, the face shape. Yikes it was excruciating! Yesterday, I smashed it and thought I would retry today but so far I have not gone back to it. This is one way to get an even stronger appreciation for the artist who created it bigger and in stone!!(The size of mine is shown sitting next to my cat Trixiebelle on a bench. She's saying, "Are you kidding me?"

3 comments:

  1. OMG! I can't believe you smashed it! I thought it was great - and I had to chuckle when I saw how small it was. I thought it was much larger :o)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Angelica, LOL, yep, that's the sad part it was only about 3" high! I'm going to try again sometime. Also, the first picture I had (the one above)does not show a cupid's bow mouth that I found in another picture. I think it looked like a Modigliani with the long face just not his wonderful carving! The clay is sitting next to this keyboard in a plastic bag mocking me now! Thanks for your kind words--maybe I'll give it another go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Noooo! Did you really smash it!? what a shame! I thought it was really cute, and I love it being so small. Hope you'll get back to it!

    ReplyDelete