Amedeo Modigliani

Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) was a contemporary of the Cubists, and his Expressionistic work was influenced by that emotionally-charged style. Starting his career as a painter, he is also known for his works on paper and his primativistic sculptures. Modigliani is among a group of modern avant-garde artists working in Paris in the early 20th century whose personal lives, vices, friendships, and artistic explorations often supercedes their work. His alcoholic excesses, chaotic personal life, and dramatic death have further fueled the Modigliani legend, and seem in contrast to the great control and quality shown in his works. His passionate, bohemian lifestyle led to his early death of tuberculosis at the age of 35. In true soap opera style, his distraught lover committed suicide the very next day, jumping to her death and taking her own life and that of the couple's unborn child.