The Exposure of Women in Art: Nude Seating on a Sofa

Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani, Nude Seated on a Sofa, 1917

The Exposure of Women in Art
by EMMA SHAPIRO
Amedeo Modigliani painted countless nudes during his short life-time, but Nude Seated on a Sofa differs in compilation than most others. Modigliani typically painted nudes in the same fashion of a woman lying diagonally in the confines of a small space, legs eclipsed by the canvas edge, and an outline with a flowing and precise line. These features combine for a typically overtly sexual and erotic painting. 


Nude Seated on a Sofa has a more subdued sex appeal. The woman does not fully reveal her body like the other nudes, instead she reveals herself in the slightest manner. The woman does not unawarely expose herself shyly, but does so meaningfully, with purposeful power. Her gaze mimics that of the women in other Modigliani paintings. His woman have an appearance that exudes sexual availability. Modigliani uses his classic technique of filling in the eyes of his subject emptily. He does so in order to remove the subject's identity, evolving them into just a painting. 



The woman in Nude Seated on a Sofa does not appear motherly from her exposed breasts. She chooses to appear as a subject of desire. Beyonce stated that “woman should own their sexuality” and the model of this nude does just that. She said, “You can be a businesswoman, a mother, an artist, and a feminist -- whatever you want to be -- and still be a sexual being. It’s not mutually exclusive.” The woman in the painting allows herself to appear sexy, but in a strong, self-aware manner.
  • 7:00 AM

Chaim Soutine

Amedeo Modigliani
Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani, 1917

By EMMA SHAPIRO

Chaim Soutine and Amedeo Modigliani met while living in Paris in the early 1900s. Both being Jewish, Russian immigrant artists, they did not have many friends but each other. Modigliani painted many portraits of Soutine, the 1917 one as one of the most famous. Modigliani took inspiration from Africa, Egypt, and Archaic Greece for his paintings. Portraits with abstracted features, long noses, almond and sometimes blank eyes, columnar necks, and neutral backgrounds, characterize the work of Modigliani. Modigliani often left the eyes of his portraits blank, in order to degrade his subjects of identity. His paintings of Soutine stray from this commonality though. 

In Chaim Soutine, Soutine stares at the viewer with his black eyes. Although dark and mysterious, by giving Soutine eyes, Modigliani also gives him an identity. Soutine was of few people Modigliani knew, and an even lesser amount of friends. Soutine's nose does not possess the usual elongation but a slight thickness. His head also remains at almost normal proportions. Modigliani also paints Soutine in a setting, unlike his usual neutral or abstract, geometric backgrounds. Soutine sits in front of a table and what appears to be a mirror. He crosses his hands loosely and stares blankly. Although a rarity with Modigliani, his naturalistic approach in paintings of Soutine is admirable. 

Modigliani has been given the name of the "quintessential example of the bohemian artist." While living in Paris he sold portraits to sitters at the bar for as low as five francs. Modigliani did not aim become famous but rather struggled to get by. Along with portraiture, Modigliani also fascinated himself with the human body. He painted countless nudes, almost always in the same format. He rarely strayed from his signature style of a nude woman lying diagonally, confined within narrow space, and legs eclipsed by the edge of the canvas. The subjects usually had a gaze which suggested sexual availability. His nude women were often confiscated from exhibits due to their overt sexuality and eroticism. Although Modigliani lived a short life, the individuality of his art works have allowed him to live on with them. 



  • 7:00 PM

Art History Hotties: Jean Cocteau

Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani, Jean Cocteau, 1916
By MARK LUCE

Some of you of a certain middle-age may remember when Julia Roberts married Lyle Lovett back in 1993. Conventional wisdom wondered what a beauty like Roberts could possibly be doing with a beast like Lovett; ever the contrarian, I wondered what woman was remotely cool enough to be with the wryest songwriter on the planet. Lovett was a personal musical hero, a man whose lyrics mined the sardonic and ironic as much as the Byronic. For all the tracks such as "I Married Her Just Because She Looks Like You," he'd have a heartfelt ballad like"Nobody Loves Me Like My Baby" perfect for that staple of 1990s romance - the mix-tape.

When the students said they wanted to write about Art History Hotties, I balked. Too many innuendos, too much room for run-away puns, the pictures would be too risque. The students, though, were relentless, and in the end my inner mischief trumped whatever sense of public decorum I supposedly still possess. As I read through their responses, I found myself repeatedly snickering and being reminded that Modigiani's portrait of Cocteau looked a smidge like Lyle. And then I recalled my favorite Lovett lines. In "Here I Am," old Lyle speaks the following:

"Given that true intellectual and emotional compatibility
Are at the very least difficult
If not impossible to come by
We could always opt for the more temporal gratification
Of sheer physical attraction.
That wouldn't make you a shallow person
Would it?"

For our purposes - no, it does not make us shallow at all. It simply makes us appreciate the beauty of the human form. Right? Right. Right...it makes us appreciate the hot human form. 
  • 7:00 AM

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne and Pale Blue Eyes

Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne, 1918





If there were a song to describe the relationship of Modigliani and his dearest lover Jeanne Hebuterne, it would be Pale Blue Eyes by the Velvet Underground.

Born in Italy in 1884, Amedeo Modigliani was stricken by illness throughout his life. Since pleurisy and typhoid had made it impossible for him to go to school, by the age of fifteen, Amedeo Modigliani was studying painting in Guglielmo Micheli's studio. Modigliani left for Paris in 1906, and joined a circle of artists like Picasso and Gino Severini. But instead of Cubism or Futurism, Modigliani took his inspiration from works of early Renaissance, such as that of Duccio and Simone Martini, and other oriental cultures. In 1917, he met the love of his life, then 19-year-old Jeanne Hebuterne. For the next two years, he seemed never get tired of painting her. And he would carry on if wasn't struck down by illness. In 1920, tubercular meningitis took his life. Jeanne committed suicide the next day, nine months pregnant with their second child.

Finding a painting to go with a piece of good music is not easy when you are little short on knowledge about either music or painting. But it all becomes very easy when the mild tune of Pale Blue Eyes finds the lazy, curving lines of Modigliani's portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne. A certain gentleness flows along the soft lines of her almond-shaped face, through the sloping shoulder and slender arm, to be picked up by her gently pressing left hand. A similar gentleness can be heard with every touch of the string and every line of the lyrics in the song. And I find myself "lingering on her pale blue eyes."

As the lyrics progresses, the song seems to be at even more resonation with the story of Modigliani's and Jeanne. Born in a Catholic family, Jeanne was renounced by her family for her relationship with the painter. It did not stop her from falling in love with him. After Modigliani's unsuccessful exhibition in Paris, they moved to Nice, where they had their first child. The sad tone of both the song the their story gives the whole thing an undercurrent of inevitable loss and tragic beauty. As Lou Reed sings, "It was good what we did yesterday, and I'd do it once again." I wonder if Jeanne Hebuterne thought the same when she threw herself out of the balcony. And I really hope she did.

  • 7:00 AM

Art for the Private Viewer - Reclining Nude

Amedeo Modigliani
Art for the Private Viewer
The Broad Usage of Sexual Figures in Art
Curated by Sree Balusu

Amedeo Modigliani, Reclining Nude, 1917
"She represents a powerful male fantasy of a highly sexual, supremely confident, alluring female offering endless pleasure and a bit of danger." Book 1, Chapter 1: The Siren, p. 11

Amedeo Modigliani is famous for his large series of nude paintings. These nudes lie on a dark bed cover that intensifies the glow of their skin. Their slender bodies span the width of the canvas. Their hands and feet often remain outside the frame of the image. They usually face the viewer, drawing him in temptingly and alluringly.

There is a key difference between Modigliani's nude paintings and many of those from earlier centures: the issue of context. Many earlier nude paintings had mythological or anecdotal context. Modigliani's paintings do not. In fact, Modigliani even said "The function of art is to struggle against obligation."

Modigliani believed that his paintings need only to depict the subjects he thinks of and not to serve the purpose of representing some separate concept. In his mind, art was not meant to be a slave to outside influences.

As expected, Modigliani's women appear more frank and outwardly provocative.

This painting is an example of how sexual figures in art have been used to create an erotic and inviting feeling for the viewer, while giving off an aura of mysteriousness and uncertainty. It is also remarkable in its depiction of eroticism for its own sake, instead of for representing mythology or literature.

  • 10:49 PM

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne

Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani, Jeanne Hebuterne, 1918 
When one mentions an artist's name, his most popular work instantly pops into my head. Sargent? Madame X. Picasso? Guernica. Van Gogh? Starry Night. However some artists have more than one claim to fame. Or perhaps, the artist is one I dislike, and thus, my mind goes blank and my face fills with disdain. Modigliani, in my opinion, fell into the former category, until I took a closer look at the artist himself.

As a poor, Jewish, tuberculosis-ridden guy from Italy, Modigliani's life began as an uphill battle. After failing to hit it big in Paris, Modigliani turned to drugs and alcohol. He went from painting perfectly proportioned portraits to two-dimensional oval-faced ones, and as his absinthe consumption increased, so did the amount of light in his paintings. After doling out nearly all of his pale-faced portraits to his numerous bedmates, Modigliani died from tuberculosis without fame, fortune, or appreciation from the artistic community. But his life wasn't completely worthless, for not every young artist gets the opportunity to share drinks with Picasso or avoid fighting in the first World War.

Though his nudes sparked the most controversy, I choose not to remember Modigliani as a rebel, and I instead think of his most delicate painting of his final lover, Jeanne Hebuterne. This was one of the few portraits of his girlfriends that he didn't give away, and I feel it best displays Modigliani's artistic flair. The white, oval face and light surroundings are especially characteristic of his final years, and her simple hair and clothing allow Jeanne's beauty to speak for itself. Though plain, Modigliani's portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne, in my opinion, deserves the most admiration of any of his works.

  • 12:00 AM