| Recently, I have to find a house warming gift for | | | | or girlfriends who didn't keep them. It seems as |
| some friends but was completely out of good | | | | though he knew his life would be short, and |
| ideas. On a similar occasion they had given me a | | | | perhaps because of that, he took to drugs and |
| quaich, a Scottish symbol of eternal friendship, so | | | | alcohol, to the point where some said his unique |
| I felt I needed to get something more than just a | | | | style was due entirely to hashish, though this was |
| card. | | | | clearly untrue. He was a follower of Nietzsche and |
| My friends are an unusual couple you just can't | | | | Baudelaire and came to the conclusion that the |
| pigeonhole. They're intelligent, witty and true | | | | route to real creativity involved disorder and |
| individuals and since they were moving in to a | | | | defiance. At one point in his career he destroyed |
| new home, I decided a decorative object would | | | | many of his earlier works declaring them inferior. |
| be suitable, but what to choose? My own taste | | | | As time passed his health grew worse. He was |
| runs to items from the ancient world, such as | | | | rejected for military service in the First World |
| Roman and Greek sculpture. I spent ages | | | | War and continued to live in Paris, never knowing |
| searching for something symbolic, something with | | | | when the next payment of his allowance would |
| a story, but Aphrodite didn't seem appropriate, an | | | | arrive. He was good looking and charming and |
| Alexander bust was something I knew they | | | | women liked him, but although he was able to sell |
| already had and Hippocrates would have been | | | | a few paintings during his life, he never made any |
| ideal for a doctor, but not somehow for an IT | | | | money from them. |
| professional and a lawyer. What I wanted was | | | | He died quite penniless, from meningitis, his sheets |
| something the same but also, like my friends, | | | | stained with oil from a sardine can, the only thing |
| completely different. | | | | he had left to eat. As always, there was a |
| My eventual choice was a Modigliani bust, an | | | | woman involved. Much younger than Modigliani and |
| elongated female head sculpture quite different | | | | on the day he died almost nine months pregnant |
| from the classical statues I'd considered and yet | | | | with their second child. After his death her family |
| exactly the same. Classical and primitive at the | | | | took her home and she walked backwards out of |
| same time Modigliani art is clearly influenced by | | | | a window, killing herself and the unborn baby. |
| African Masks and Polynesian statues, smooth and | | | | The stories about Modigliani's life are full of |
| rounded while also long and angular, it is the | | | | contradiction. Some have tried to say that the |
| contradiction which makes the statues so | | | | woman, Jeanne Hebuterne was just another |
| memorable. | | | | passing fancy for the artist, but their daughter's |
| Modigliani's story is a tragic one. Born in 1884, his | | | | research showed she was an artist in her own |
| genius for painting was clear from an early age, | | | | right. Her pictures were shown for this first time |
| but his life was dominated by tuberculosis. His | | | | in an exhibition in 2000. |
| mother ensured he had the best teaching, and he | | | | The sculpture itself is clean and clear, it is a |
| was very highly regarded by his art tutor, though | | | | woman. We don't know who she is meant to be; |
| he developed his own individual style which has | | | | there is no legend unless we make one. No |
| more in common with the angular Art Deco | | | | particular style of decor is required. The Modigliani |
| movement yet to come than the curvaceous Art | | | | bust would look good anywhere. |
| Nouveau still in vogue. Most of all, it is still a style | | | | For me, part of the attraction of this item as a |
| of it's own, quite individual. | | | | gift is the similarity between the artist and my |
| Like many now famous artists Modigliani was | | | | friends. Both witty, brilliant and interesting, a rebel |
| relatively unknown in his own life. He produced a | | | | and an individual. There the similarities between |
| huge volume of work, often up to 100 drawings a | | | | them, I hope, will end. |
| day, but in many cases he gave these to friends | | | | |