So, of course I had chosen the best day to go to London to see the Modigliani Exhibition at TATE – it was booked for the Sunday on which we had the heavy snow fall : ) I woke up in the morning and got a call from Maria who had planned to come along. ‘Are you going to make it?’ – at hearing this I looked at my clock: it was barely 7:30 and the train wasn’t supposed to leave until 9… What could she mean?… And then I opened the curtains!!! ‘I see now!’ Then I was busy jumping around the house and cheerfully shouting ‘Snow!Snow!’. I wasn’t as cheerful after two hours spent at the train station waiting for the delayed train, however the train made it and that was all that mattered!
“When I know your soul, I will paint your eyes” – Amedeo Modigliani
It was an exhibition I had the time to truly enjoy and appreciate. Knowing fragments of Modigliani’s background and creative process, I was utterly fascinated to see the paintings in the flesh. The artworks that had the biggest impact on me were ‘Nude Study’ and ‘Seated Nude II’. I also really liked ‘Seated Young Woman’, a painting that was once owned by Picasso. There was so much encapsulated in these paintings – there was the darkness, the warmth, the innocence, the temptation, the uneasiness of some of the characters being portrayed, the unique quirkiness in the portraits of his close friendships. And of course – the eyes, the missing, the present, the cosmic black and the heavenly blue. The art show will definitely remain in my memory as a portrait of the innate human search for beauty – tragic, deep, sincere and passionate.
SILVENA 