HAIFA, Israel (AP)-Curators at an Israeli museum have discovered three anonymous sketches by famous 20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani hiding under the surface of one of his paintings.
The unfinished works of Modigliani, an Italian-born artist who worked in Paris before he died in 1920, were revealed after the canvas of “Nude with a Hat” at the University of Haifa’s Hecht Museum was X-rayed as part of a sweeping. forensic study of his work for the upcoming exhibit in Philadelphia.
Inna Berkowits, an art historian at the Hecht Museum, said it was “a very impressive discovery.”
“With X-rays, we’re actually able to speak this inanimate object,” he told The Associated Press.
Modigliani is considered one of the great Modernist artists of the 20th century. His life was short, chaotic Bohemian in France, where his nude paintings were controversial. His work is characterized by slender, elongated necks and faces, a signature style influenced by African and Cycladic Greek art that was just beginning to arrive in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. century.
The Jewish artist died at the age of 35, without money.
One of his paintings, “Reclining Nude,” grossed more than $ 170 million when it sold at auction in 2015, making it one of the best -selling paintings ever. Another was sold in 2018 for $ 157 million at auction.
The high demand for authentic Modigliani works has created a thriving market for counterfeits and counterfeiting.
The last time Italy staged a major show at Modigliani, an exhibit in 2017 at Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale, museum officials closed the show early after experts announced that many of the works on display were fakes. A criminal trial has been underway for more than a year.
In 2018, X-ray technology showed an anonymous image of Modigliani under one of his paintings at London’s Tate Gallery.
Modigliani’s 1908 “Nude with a Hat” is already an unusual painting. Both sides of the canvas have portraits painted in opposite directions. Visitors entering the galleries of the Hecht Museum are greeted by an inverted nude photograph. A resemblance of Maud Abrantes, a female friend of the actress, on the reverse side is right-side up.
In 2010, the museum curator noticed the eyes of the third figure peeking out from under Abrantes ’collar. But only this year has the focus been on the hidden image.
“When we decided to do the X-ray, we were just looking to learn a little more about the hidden figure under Maud Abrantes,” Berkowits said. In addition to a hidden woman wearing a hat, they saw two other photos on the other side that were completely invisible to the eye: one of a man, and another of a woman with her hair pulled out.
“Naked with a Hat” began early in Modigliani’s career, not long after he moved to Paris from Italy, when he was struggling to find buyers for his art. The painting was purchased by the museum’s founder in 1983.
The canvas is now known to contain five of his paintings, most likely painted one on top of the other due to the need to save money on new canvases. X-ray photography and other non-invasive technologies have found hidden works by other artists such as Degas and Rembrandt.
Berkowits called the artwork “a sketchbook on a canvas,” depicting Modigliani’s repeated experimentation and “endless search for artistic expression.” He said “there is no doubt at all” that the painting is authentic.
“He was one of the first multicultural artists to draw inspiration from a variety of sources,” said Kenneth Wayne, director of the Modigliani Project, an organization that strives to compile a proven collection of the artist’s works. . He cites Modigliani’s contemporaries Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse as other examples.
Modigliani sought “an air of uniqueness and beauty” and achieved that by incorporating foreign styles into his art, Wayne added. Wayne and his colleagues use scientific techniques and art expertise to remove the fakes.
X-ray photography was performed prior to an extensive exhibition of Modigliani’s works at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.
Wayne said the growing number of technical studies such as the Barnes Foundation increases confidence in confirming true Modiglianis.
The foundation’s museum said the exhibit will open on Oct. 16 and explore the artist’s working methods and materials based on forensic analysis of dozens of Modigliani’s paintings and sculptures borrowed from collections around the world. .
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By ILAN BEN ZION
