By A.M. Goldstein
HAIFA
—One
of Italian-Jewish artist Modigliani's famous paintings, "Nude with a
Hat/Portrait of Maud Abrantes," left its University of Haifa home recently
for a brief visit to Rome.
The
Haifa
institution's
Hecht
Museum
lent the unusual work to Complesso
del Vittoriano,
Rome
, for an exhibition of Modigliani's works that opens toward
the end of this month.
The painting, part of the
Hecht
Museum
collection, is unusual because it is painted on both sides of the canvas, the
Nude on one side and Maud on the other. The
artist could not afford canvas and had to exploit what he had.
The double-sided work was painted in 1908.
The nude is unidentified, but is thought to appear in another Modigliani
work, "The Jewess."
The
Rome
exhibition will display 70 works, milestones in the short career of Amedeo
Modigliani, who was born in 1884 and died in 1920.
Now considered one of the important pathbreakers of modern art, he
achieved fame only after his death.
The
Hecht
Museum
, located on the campus of the
University
of
Haifa
, has both an archeological wing, devoted to the "people of
Israel
in the
Land
of
Israel
," and an art wing, which features works from the Jewish School of Paris
and works of the impressionists.
A.M.
Goldstein is the English language editor for the University of Haifa's Department
of External Affairs.
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