The major autumn exhibition at the Albertina shows "Modigliani. The Primitivist Revolution". And thus this grand master of Classical Modernism for the first time in Austria.

The main motif of his paintings and sculptures was always the human being. Stretched-out bodies and faces with their secretive and empty eyes. The oeuvre of the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) is fascinating and dramatic all at once. His works give you a sense of the tragic side of his life, which also included an excess of alcohol and drugs.

One year later than scheduled due to the pandemic, the Albertina remembers the 100th anniversary of the artist's death with the spectacular autumn exhibition "Modigliani. The Primitivist Revolution". Principal works from the most renowned museums and private collections in the world, including many of his famous portraits and nudes, are making their way to Vienna for the occasion. Modigliani will be shown as a solo exhibition for the first time in Austria.

The artist born in Livorno, Italy, once worked in the Parisian artists’ quarter Montmartre, side by side with the likes of Pablo Picasso or Henri Matisse, but enjoyed scant success with his art during his lifetime. His style, which was atypical and often provocative at the time, was not in great demand. Modigliani died in Paris at the age of just 35 years from tuberculosis. His works attained enormous popularity only after his death and some of them now fetch prices in the hundreds of millions.

The 80 or so works by Modigliani to be shown during the exhibition will be joined by another 50 objects from three continents – namely works by Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncuşi, and André Derain, as well as artifacts of so-called "primitive" – prehistoric, archaic or non-European – world cultures. These works supplement the extraordinary show. Modigliani regularly referred to African, Egyptian, East Asian and archaic Greek art in his work. The exhibition also presents him for the first time as a leading avant-garde artist, who carried the revolution of Primitivism well into the 20th century.

Modigliani. The Primitivist Revolution
September 17, 2021 - January 9, 2022
http://www.albertina.at/