In Scene4 I wrote: "Amadeo Modigliani was a good painter, not a great one. He didn't have the breath-taking, explosive color madness of Van Gogh or the eclectic, mind-boggling genius of Picasso. He was a good painter like a 1000 others in the 20th century. "
I was wrong. Among the 1000 others, including Picasso, there was only one Modigliani.
In the article, I was making a smug, sneering comment about the merchandising of art. It's really irrelevant especially with regard to him. If he had sold his work for more than a few francs, if he had acquired patronage and some comfort, he wouldn't have lived much longer than he did. He was a haunted man and he was dying of a physical disease for which there was no medical control. Like Rimbaud, Modigliani created works with perspectives and color that linger and in turn haunt the viewer. Like Rimbaud, he was a stranger and could not live in the world in which he found himself.
