A suffering nude 1909

Amedeo Modigliani made this nude, of indeterminate date, with oil on canvas. The color palette is very limited, as if Modigliani wants to focus on form, and what it can express, over hue. The painting is a layering of strokes, thin and quick, and you can see the raw canvas peeking through. This keeps the image alive, a record of the artist's process. A particularly unnerving area is the dark line drawn at the woman's neck. It's like a crack that travels up into her jaw. The mark evokes a sense of fragility, but also, and this is critical for me, vulnerability. Modigliani wasn't afraid to show his own vulnerability, his own humanness, in his work. I'm reminded of the paintings of Paula Modersohn-Becker, another artist with a singular vision who worked to create honest, and sometimes raw, portrayals of humanity. Art is a conversation, and Modigliani, like Paula, speaks to us with a voice that is both intimate and timeless.