Modigliani (Great Modern Masters) [Hardcover]

Jose Maria Faerna (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

Modigliani - handsome, amorous and addicted to drink and drugs - famously said "I am going to drink myself dead". And so he did. But not before producing in numerous paintings, drawings and sculptures, the sensuous nudes and intense, mannered portraits that have become such a popular trademark.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YAAEach of these volumes is arranged into three sections. First, the artist is introduced in the context of his time. The second part is a biographical sketch, accompanied by photographs of the artist. The third section consists of excellently reproduced, full-color photographs of the artist's work, with descriptive text and an overview of his career. Some of the works are not often seen, and are a feast for the eye. The clear grouping of information and the handsome layout, page design, and typography make these books appealing and accessible, even though they have no indexes. The texts are presented in a straightforward manner that is easy to understand. Suitable for research as well as for recreational reading.ATurid Teague, Fairfax County Public Library,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish

Product Details

• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams / Cameo; 1st edition (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810946513
• ISBN-13: 978-0810946514
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Modigliani (Great Modern Masters), October 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Modigliani (Great Modern Masters) (Hardcover)

This book is a wonderful introduction to Modigliani's work. I was impressed with the beauty and variety of full-page color plates of his paintings and sculpture. These illustrations are accompanied by text that describe not only the individual works, but also the progression, development and influential people/artists in Modigliani's lifetime. A breif bibliography is included. My interest in this artist has increased after reading this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crouching Caryatid, Hidden Eye, August 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Modigliani (The World of art) (Hardcover)

One of MODIGLIANI's greatest regrets was not continuing as a sculptor: the enigmatically sensuous "Crouching caryatid" in roughly-hewn boulder-like stone showcased his skills at making every sculpted surface part work together and at reducing forms to their most basic parts. His drawings and paintings put sculpturally-influenced emphases on the sitter's eyes, hands, mouth and shoulders: "Hanka Zborowska" had Brancusi-style tightly compressed features in a thin face looking like a 3-D polished metal sculpture. Avoiding naturalism and tending towards Art Nouveau, MODIGLIANI painted nudes, portraits and some rare landscapes: "Landscape at Cagnes" was painted vertically like head- and shoulders-sized portraits, with cypresses people-like in their oval leaves and waveringly thin-stemmed trunks. His painting became an art of expressive forms and geometrically simple lines influenced by African art and Cezanne: "Jeanne Hebuterne" pregnant, with an African mask face on a swan's neck symbolically linking the cerebral and the physical, a line forming the head-neck-shoulders axis, and a suite of curved arabesques forming the body; "Paul Alexandre," with Cezanne-type dominating and subsidiary hues deepening statue-like modeled light and shade against a green background and with Titian- and Velazquez-style formal stance and spread fingers; and "Raymond Radiguet," as a fraily sensitive 12-year-old, childlike and prophetic with one eye intensely blue and one blankly inward-looking. Author Carol Mann explains MODIGLIANI's art by a clearly written and nicely illustrated text. Her book works with Jose Maria Faerna's DE CHIRICO and MODIGLIANI to show the influences on the artist from the art of Jonathan Brown's VELAZQUEZ; the ART NOUVEAU books by Robert Fitzgerald, Edmund Vincent Gillon Jr or Paul Greenhalgh; the CEZANNE books by Henri Lallemand or Pavel Machotka; and Filippo Pedrocco's TITIAN.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Colors a bit off, but good overall, July 12, 2009

By 

Eugene Tenenbaum "reluctant reader" (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modigliani (Great Modern Masters) (Hardcover)

As in all titles in the Great Modern Masters series published by Abrams: Colors are not vibrant, often with a brownish tint or/and too dark, and their accuracy is just O.K. There are 64 pages of a good size 9.5x12 inches (24x30.5 cm). It begins with an introduction with 5-6 small b&w pictures on 2 pages, which is followed by a biography with 5-6 small b&w pictures on 2 next pages. The rest is dedicated to good size over 60 full color plates divided into chapters dedicated to artist's carrier periods, style directions, or themes, each described by 12-16 lines of text. The series is inferior to the same size paperback series published by Taschen in 1990s, but superior to Taschen's series of smaller sizes published latter. Unfortunately, the Taschen series does not cover Bacon, Botero, Brancusi, Braque, Calder, de Chirico, Johns, Kokoschka, Leger, Man Ray, Malevich, Modigliani, and Rouault this series does.