Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

This stunning volume, an art-historical event, reproduces some 450 drawings by Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) never before published or exhibited. Including graceful female nudes, caryatids, portraits, impressions of the theater and circus, sculptural heads and studies for paintings, these drawings were made between 1906 and 1914, after the artist's move to Paris at the age of 22. In the best of them one sees flashes of Modigliani's mature style. French physician Paul Alexandre, Modigliani's friend and patron, bought the drawings and hoarded them for decades. His son, historian Noel Alexandre, provides a biographical sketch of Modigliani interwoven with his father's reminiscences, letters to and from the painter, photographs of the artist and his milieu, color reproductions of oil paintings, and a 10-page letter from Eugenia Modigliani, the artist's mother, filling in details of his youth in Livorno. This catalogue documents a globe-trotting exhibit that comes to the U.S. in 1995. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Through the competently related recollection of Dr. Paul Alexandre, Modigliani's devoted patron and father of the compiler, together with their correspondence and that of mutual friends including the sculptor Brancusi, the reader can attain a better understanding of the artist's declared aim: to find "neither the real nor the unreal, but the subconscious, the mystery of what is instinctive in the human race." Among the enlightening unpublished anecdotes--an enduring foundation for effective historical analysis--is an account of Alexandre's having introduced Modigliani to African art and of its meaning for the artist. There follows a superb series of the drawings collected by Alexandre, many reproduced in color of an equally high standard. Organized by date, media and subject, they make possible a close scrutiny of the creative process, especially those elements of subject and expression Modigliani decided to develop. An important addition to existing literature that includes F. Russoli's Modigliani: Drawings and Sketches (CH, Jun'70), N. Ponente's Modigliani: The Life and Work of the Artist (London, 1969), or the Arts Council of Great Britain exhibition organized in 1962 by John Russell. Useful chronology; concise catalog of the Alexandre collection making mention of those drawings already published elsewhere. Graduate; faculty; professional. R. W. Liscombe; University of British Columbia

Booklist Review

Paul Alexandre was a young doctor with a passion for art and the company of artists when Modigliani arrived in Paris in 1906 and the two men became close friends almost right off the bat. Alexandre zealously collected every Modigliani drawing he could get his hands on, always intending to publish them and write about his inspired friend, but he died without realizing this dream. Now Alexandre's son has made his father's stunning collection of 450 Modigliani drawings accessible for the first time, adding incalculably to our understanding of the artist's methods and aesthetic. Executed rapidly and with a natural grace and spontaneity, these highly sculptural and charmingly sensual studies of figures and faces are wonderfully intimate and revealing. Inspired by African and Khmer sculpture, Modigliani achieved a remarkable stylization, simplification, and purity of line and form. Alexandre has also made good use of selected papers and photographs of his father's, providing us with fresh insights into Modigliani's personality and social milieu. An exciting and illuminating volume. ~--Donna Seaman