Head

Known primarily for his brief, bright career as a painter, Modigliani also made an early foray into sculpture. Inspired by his introduction to Brancusi in 1909, Modigliani carved twenty-five works over the next five years; all but two were heads. The earlier head displayed here, Head VIII (1992.254, has been associated with a drawing that may reveal the artist’s original conception. In the drawing, the female sitter wears a jeweled headdress, but in carving the stone, Modigliani stopped before rounding out the head. Instead, the bust recalls the form of an architectural capital. The later, more elongated, bust (TL41258.2), may have been influenced by Brancusi’s Head of a Girl of 1907, and was part of a suite of seven heads displayed in 1912 at the Salon d’Automne, an annual exhibition of contemporary art. Both of these heads bear features that allude to the art of Africa and the ancient world that so interested the avant-garde.