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On January 24, 1920 Amadeo Modigliani died of tubercular meningitis. He was 35. A day later, in suicidal grief, Jeanne Hébuterne, his common-law wife and mother of one child, jumped from a fifth floor window at her parents' home killing herself and a second unborn child. She was 21.
During his brief, prolific career, Modigliani's work and his life-style were considered obscene and scorned. Hébuterne was considered obscene by her family even for a long, lingering time after her death.
Obscene work that is today revered and collected as masterpieces. Recently, one of Modigliani's 'obscenities' was 'scorned' to the tune-ful price of $55.7 million dollars. An obscene relationship that over the years has become a maudlin, romantic, signatory legend of despairing artistry and doomed love.
There is no obscenity in the arts. There is only a perspective that deems and labels out of ignorance, fear, politics, financial gain, and severe self-displeasure.
Obscenity is in the mind of the beholder.
In this Special Issue, Scene4 writers explore the perspective of the 'obscene' and 'not obscene' from a variety of unpredictable viewpoints... from their pens, to your eyes, to your mind.
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