French masterpieces frame the modern era

The Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) is widely recognized as one of the most important portrait artists of the 20th century.

His portraits and nudes are characterized by asymmetric compositions, elongated forms and contours that are simple, yet powerful.

In the past few years, Modigliani's paintings made the news for their record-breaking auction sales, drawing public attention to the artist who lived a troubled life, didn't get much public recognition during his life and died of tubercular meningitis in 1920.

LaM is temporarily closed for renovations, which allows the museum to lend its six original Modigliani paintings to the Shanghai exhibition. LaM collaborated with other European museums to hold the exhibition Modigliani's Secrets from 2021-22, which later toured Helsinki and Budapest.

The exhibition in Shanghai marks the first time LaM's collection is shown in Asia, Xie says.

These artworks from LaM will not be able to travel to other parts of China, Lacourt says, "because we wish to have them back before the reopening (of LaM)".

The LaM collection of modern art features the connection between three series — modern and contemporary art and Art Brut, or Raw Art, and a French school that produced art in the early 20th century that is crude, childlike and primitive.

The exhibition at Bund One Art Museum is designed in chronological order, arranged in four sections — Cubism, Amedeo Modigliani, Dream Paintings and Expressive Color — to show the short history of France's modern art through the eyes of LaM's founding collectors.

While Cubism was a revolutionary new style reflecting the rupture between the artistic world and authority, the works of Modigliani, an artist of Ecole de Paris, present a personal style questioning the canon of art history, Lacourt says.

Upstairs at the Bund One Art Museum, another French exhibition is being held till Jan 5. The Journey of Ink: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Paintings from the Musee Cernuschi and the LaM exhibition are projects celebrating the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and France. These two exhibitions create an interesting cultural dialogue between French and Chinese arts, Xie says.

If you go

Picasso, Modigliani & Modern Art: Masterpieces from LaM Museum 10 am-6 pm (last entry by 5:30 pm), till Feb 9.

Bund One Art Museum.1 Zhongshan No 1 Road East, Huangpu district, Shanghai.