Biography of Amedeo Modigliani, Modernist Artist

The Italian artist Amadeo Modigliani  (July 12, 1884–January 24, 1920) is best known for his portraits and nudes, which featured elongated faces, necks, and bodies. The distinctly modernist works were not celebrated during Modiglianis lifetime, but after his death, he achieved great acclaim. Today, Modigliani is considered a crucial figure in the development of modern painting and sculpture. Fast Facts: Amadeo Modigliani Occupation:  ArtistBorn:  July 12, 1884 in Livorno, ItalyDied:  Ã‚  January 24, 1920 in Paris, FranceEducation:  Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, ItalySelected Works:  The Jewess  (1907),  Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz  (1916),  Ã‚  Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne  (1918)Famous Quote:  When I know your soul, I will paint your eyes. Early Life and Training Born into a Sephardic Jewish family in Italy, Modigliani grew up in Livorno, a port city known as a safe haven for those fleeing religious persecution. His family suffered financial ruin at the time of his birth, but they eventually recovered. A sickly childhood prevented the young Modigliani from receiving a traditional formal education. He battled pleurisy and typhoid fever. However, he began drawing and painting at an early age, and his mother supported his interests. At age 14, Modigliani enrolled in formal training with local Livorno master Guglielmo Micheli. Modigliani often rejected the ideas of classical painting, but instead of disciplining his pupil, Micheli encouraged Amedeos experimentation with different styles. After two years of success as a student, Modigliani contracted tuberculosis, which disrupted his artistic education and perhaps his entire lifes trajectory: a mere 19 years later, the disease would claim his life. Parisian Artist In 1906, Modigliani moved to Paris, the center of artistic experimentation. He settled in an apartment in Le Bateau-Lavoir, a commune for poor, struggling artists. Modiglianis lifestyle was raucous and arguably self-destructive: he became addicted to drugs and alcohol and engaged in numerous affairs. Biographers have speculated that Modiglianis ongoing struggle with tuberculosis spurred his self-destructive lifestyle. In the early 1900s, tuberculosis was a leading cause of death, and the disease was contagious. Perhaps by burying his struggles under the influence of substances and hard-partying, Modigliani shielded himself from potential social rejection as well as the suffering caused by his illness. Painting Modigliani produced new work at a furious pace, creating as many as 100 drawings a day. Most of these drawings no longer exist, however, as Modigliani typically destroyed or discarded them during his frequent moves. In 1907, Modigliani met Paul Alexandre, a young physician and patron of the arts, who became one of his first steady customers.  The Jewess, painted in 1907, was the first Modigliani painting purchased by Alexandre, and is considered one of the prime examples of Modiglianis work during the period. A few years later, Modiglianis most productive period began. In 1917, with the patronage of Polish art dealer and friend Leopold Zborowski, Modigliani started work on a series of 30 nudes that became some of the most celebrated work of his career. The nudes were featured in Modiglianis first and only solo show, and it became a sensation. Police tried to close the exhibition down on the first day due to charges of public obscenity. With the removal of some of the nudes from a storefront window, the show continued a few  days later.   A photograph depicting Portrait of Jeanne Hebuteme on display in a gallery. Ben A. Pruchnie / Getty Images Modigliani created a series of portraits of fellow artists including  Pablo Picasso  while World War I raged in Europe. Among the most famous of these works is a portrait of the artist Jacques Lipchitz and his wife, Berthe. After beginning a relationship with Jeanne Hebuterne in the spring of 1917, Modigliani entered the final stage of his work. Hebuterne was a frequent subject for his portraits, and they are marked by the use of more subtle colors and elegant lines. Modiglianis portraits of Jeanne Hebuterne are considered some of his most relaxed, peaceful paintings.  Ã‚   Sculpture In 1909, Amedeo Modigliani met the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi.  The meeting inspired Modigliani to pursue his lifelong interest in sculpture.  For the next five years, he focused on sculpting. A 1912 Paris exhibition at the Salon dAutomne featured eight stone heads by Modigliani. They demonstrate his ability to translate ideas from his paintings to a three-dimensional form. They also reveal strong influences from African sculpture.   Laura Lezza / Getty Images At some point in 1914, at least partially influenced by the rarity of sculpting materials with the outbreak of World War I, Modigliani abandoned sculpture for good. Later Life and Death Modigliani suffered from the progression of tuberculosis throughout most of his adult life. After a series of affairs and relationships, including one with Russian poet Anna Akhmatova in 1910, he appeared to live a life of relative contentment with 19-year-old Jeanne Hebuterne beginning in 1917. She gave birth to a daughter, Jeanne, in 1918. In 1920, a neighbor checked on the young couple after not hearing from them for several days. They found Modigliani in the final stages of tubercular meningitis. He succumbed to the disease in a local hospital on January 24, 1920. At the time of Modiglianis death, Hebuterne was eight months pregnant with the couples second child; she did by suicide the following day. Legacy and Influence During his lifetime, Modigliani was stubbornly idiosyncratic, refusing to associate himself with the art movements of his era, such as  Cubism,  Surrealism, and Futurism. Today, however, his work is considered pivotal to the development of modern art. Sources Meyers, Jeffrey. Modigliani: A Life. Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 2014.Secrest, Meryle. Modigliani. Random House, 2011.

Cultural Context - Comparative Study, Sive and Children of...

Cultural Context – Part B To study the cultural context of â€Å"Sive† and â€Å"Children of Men† means to examine the world of each and the values and attitude of the people in these worlds. The worlds created in â€Å"Sive† and â€Å"Children of Men† are very distinct but also have many parallels. Both texts explore the concepts of family, love, fear and control. The setting of each text was paramount in informing me about the attitudes and values of that time. Each text depicts an oppressive and controlled society. â€Å"Children of Men† is set in the year 2027, in the future, which contrasts to â€Å"Sive† which is set in the 1950’s, in the past. â€Å"Children of Men† is set in urban London in the future. On the contrary â€Å"Sive† is set in 1950’s Ireland in a very†¦show more content†¦Similarly in â€Å"Sive†, Sive is a young girl growing up in 1950’s Ireland. There is nothing special about Sive. Both protagonists receive motivation to stand up for what they believe in. In â€Å"children of Men†, Theo needs to be bribed at first before he gets motivated. However after he is bribed Theo learns something which gives him hope and drives him on. Kee the lady he is protecting is pregnant with the first baby in 18 years, â€Å"your baby is the miracle the world has been waiting for†. This displays Theo’s newfound hope; it is this hope that gives him purpose. Similarly Sive also receives a reason to hope which also gives her purpose. Liam Scuab and Sive fall in love. After being matched with Sean Dota it is her love for Liam Scuab that drives her to rebel against the match. â€Å"Sive, I love you† are the words that give Sive purpose to rebel against society. Both Alfonso Cuaron and John B. Keane have created situations for the protagonists where they are forced to rebel in order to get what they believe in. Both texts explore the ideas of love and marriage. In â€Å"Children of Men† Theo was married to Julian and they had a son called Dylan. However baby Dylan died and their grief drove them apart and destroyed their family. In contrast to this, in â€Å"Sive† Sive and Liam are only beginning their relationship and face many problems together. In â€Å"Children of Men† Julian and Theo were allowed to choose each other. On the other hand inShow MoreRelatedBohlander/Snell-Managing Hr24425 Words   |  98 Pagestypes of organizational forms used for competing internationally. objective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Identify the unique training needs for international assignees and their employees. objective Explain the economic, politicallegal, and cultural factors in different countries that HR managers need to consider. objective Identify the characteristics of a good international compensation plan. objective Explain how domestic and international HRM differ. objective ReconcileRead MoreOcd - Symptoms, Causes, Treatment131367 Words   |  526 Pagesseverity of obsessive and compulsive symptoms. Dr. Clark has received a number of research grants to study the cognitive basis of emotional disorders, the most recent being a Canadian federal grant to investigate intentional control of unwanted intrusive thoughts. He is also a founding member of the Obsessive Compulsive Cognitions Working Group, an international research group devoted to the study of the cognitive aspects of OCD, and the past Associate Editor of Cognitive Therapy and Research. Read MoreMedicare Policy Analysis447966 Words   |  1792 PagesFinancial Assistance for Low Income Medicare Beneficiaries Subtitle B—Reducing Health Disparities Subtitle C—Miscellaneous Improvements TITLE III—PROMOTING PRIMARY CARE, MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES, AND COORDINATED CARE TITLE IV—QUALITY Subtitle A—Comparative Effectiveness Research Subtitle B—Nursing Home Transparency Subtitle C—Quality Measurements Subtitle D—Physician Payments Sunshine Provision Subtitle E—Public Reporting on Health Care-Associated Infections TITLE V—MEDICARE GRADUATE MEDICAL

Shoplifting and Its Effect on Society Free Essays

Shoplifting and its effect on society. Shoplifting seems like a victimless crime, but the damages caused are far from minor. I myself was recently caught shoplifting, and now I need to pay for the consequences of my crime. We will write a custom essay sample on Shoplifting and Its Effect on Society or any similar topic only for you Order Now There are many reasons why people shoplift, it can be a obsessive compulsion disorder (OCD) all the way to a dare from a friend, either way Shoplifting does not only affect the individual, but it also affects the community, the retailer, and the consumer. Shoplifting affects not only me but my family as well. I feel embarrassed and worthless yet if I felt like that. â€Å"Why did I do it in the first place? † Because shoplifting is tempting, the shoplifter thinks they’re getting the product for free. But the truth is that someone has to pay for our mistake, thus price rises and the community has to pay. And some stores could even go bankrupt because of shoplifting. It is unfair to people who do not shoplift to pay for the mistakes that shoplifters make. People in the community who are not as wealthy as others have a harder time paying for their food and needs, and when they feel they can’t afford spending too much money at a certain retail store they will have to go to another destination to shop, causing a great inconvience to them and also the retail store will be losing money and might even close down in the future. We also suffer on a personal level, when an employee who realizes an item has been stolen from their store. They often feel violated, and when they feel violated it causes them to lose trust in others. So store employee follow potential merchants, watching their every move, making potential merchants uneasy and guilty when they are innocent. As there is no ‘look’ of a shoplifter, there is no way to identify whether a person is going to shoplift or not. And thus trust is lost between the merchant and the retailer. Resulting in an uncomfortable environment to shop in. Only about three percent of shoplifters are professionals. The rest of the shoplifters, shoplift as a response to experiencing stress in their personal lives. I myself am an immigrant from Singapore I just moved to Canada last year and a lot has happened since then. I survived being poor and unsatisfying for a year, so â€Å"why did I shoplift? † part of me believes that it is because I’m poor and I just wanted something, but part of me believes that it also because of what I’m going through a lot of stress and I feel depressed at times. Its like I need to fill up a hole in me. I thought shoplifting would make me feel better but the truth is you will lose all self-confidence in yourself. You become even more depressed and emotional you start to feel as if you don’t deserve a lot of things, or that others are better than you. Shoplifting has broken up many families and friends, the distrust and the disappointment they have when they look at you will consume you and soon you yourself will change. I was fortunate that my mother was very understanding and offered to help me out of my depression. She did admitted her disappointment in me but she told me I am still a good person. That made me realized that as a individual we belong to a community, and we make up what the community will become, each of us play a role to become someone bigger than themselves. When someone does well another will also want to do well. We could start by doing community work and volunteering at places that need our help. Helping others can without a doubt make you feel better about yourself, shoplifting will only make that empty feeling deeper as you start to feel guilty and worthless that others are better than you for not shoplifting. You’ll feel like the bad guy. Nowadays people not only shoplift, but steal and con others of their money this is because people who becomes thieves usually starts as shoplifters at a young age. Shoplifting when young can often lead to becoming thieves and robbers in the future. In fact ninety percent of convicts admitted that they have shoplifted before in their teenage years or younger. Statistics shows that there is an average of twenty-seven million shoplifters in the United States of America alone, which equates to one person in eleven, and only ten million have been caught within the past five years. Kids make up twenty-five percent of shoplifter; adults, seventy-five percent. People have been doing this for a long time because fifty-five percent of adults claim they began to shoplift as teenagers, and when asked, seventy-three percent of adults and seventy-two percent of juveniles do not plan to shoplift, it just an act of impulse. And also, an astonishing eighty-nine percent of kids say they know of other kids who shoplift and sixty-six percent say they associate with them. And only three percent of shoplifters are professionals, but they make up 10 percent of the item they sell. Some even after being caught in the act, fifty-seven percent of adults and thirty-three percent of juveniles say it is difficult to stop even after being caught. Habits are hard to break, shoplifting becomes an addiction and you try to stop but you just can’t. And when you reach that point statistics show that habitual shoplifters steal at least two times a week. So when I got caught on my first time I’m grateful for it, for without it I might have become addicted to shoplifting or worse wanted to make it my professional career. Shoplifting is illegal and is a punishable crime by law. It is not a small crime whether you stole fifty dollars worth of items or ten dollars worth of items. The crime is the same you have shoplifted from the store, and stolen something that doesn’t belong to you. For example, you can be arrested and paraded through a store in handcuffs, banned from stores or malls, and you may even end up with a criminal record. If you get a criminal record especially when you are young people will treat you like an ex-convict, it’ll be harder to get a job, get into college, or anything else that need a criminal background check. Which is mostly everything. Shoplifting can ruin your life but remember even without getting caught can shoplifting also ruin your life, as I have already stated that shoplifting affects you emotionally the same thing applies here you lose your self-respect and your respect for others. Small crime doesn’t mean no crime. Responsibilty for your family, friends and the people surrounding you, there are people that look up, like you’re their role model. I myself have siblings and I hope very much they don’t follow in my footsteps; I have never done anything that would cause people to lose their faith and respect in me. It is my responsibilty to set a good role model for my younger siblings. Also you as an individual have a responsibility as a civilent to be a good role model to the community. Never think that there is no one watching you, there is always someone watching and looking up to you in respect if you’ve done the right things. Respect is something you earn not given. By shoplifting you are openly disrespecting the community and although you may not notice now, but you are also disrespecting yourself. When you shoplift you are disrespecting the community by How to cite Shoplifting and Its Effect on Society, Essay examples

What it takes to be a writer free essay sample

â€Å"A writer,† according to an anonymous personage â€Å"is the greatest creation of God. To preserve the sanctity of his title, he must try his best to work for the greater good; by striving, aspiring and inspiring.† The depth of this statement sinks into me whenever I read it. A writer is a marvelous creation of God; the perfect paradigm of God’s unique and sentient attributes. He lives in the hearts of millions of people, ruling them, controlling the flow of emotions. He has the power of words; the power which entitles him to make anyone laugh joyfully or cry lugubriously. Writing, therefore, is no easy task as many take it to be. The most difficult assignment that can be assigned to a particular person is to write. For a writer must dream as no one does; he must think like no one has ever done before. From figments of the imagination to heart-rending screams of a lover as he is dragged to his doom; from radiations killing innumerable people to the plethora of hard work that extracts a heavy toll from a factory-worker; a writer has everything in the drawers of his mind; he will rummage through them and bring out what appears to be the most chivalric and the most abominable conclusion. We will write a custom essay sample on What it takes to be a writer or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He cannot and he must not tarry, even for a split fraction of a second; his dilatoriness may have an outcome whose drastic force is difficult to control. He may make or mar the beauty of a nation. A poet says: â€Å"Yesterday a philosopher declared aloud Your nation has vowed to be destroyed Asking him how could this be possible Said he, you have poets in profusion† It is very important to define the spirit of writing. Writing merely for the sake of wealth and fame is not only rash and unscrupulous, but also destroys the quintessence of this â€Å"holy† profession. A writer is a builder of the nation. If he resorts to illicit means then the nation is destroyed. He must burn the midnight oil, he must work heart and soul to create something that is constructive and provocative. Writing extracts a heavy toll from the writer, leaving him weakened and hollowed, but compared to the extra benefits a nation may achieve, it is worth the effort. A writer can instill a new spiri t in the people simply by crafting a book from words which individually carry no value. He provides the impetus to the nation to progress and prosper by leaps and bounds. An amateur writer is always better than a professional one, for while he serves to rejuvenate the societal values by infusing a new spirit of hope, the latter seeks to destroy it for selfish purposes. George Washington once said: â€Å"Keep flax from fire and youth from gambling.† As an afterthought, we might add that we must also save our writers from moral corruption. The lust for wealth is insatiable and often drives man to desperation. We need to save our writers from being desperados who seek to destroy the nation. Professionalism is of two types. One is the type that seeks to induce refinement in writing by learning, practicing and experiencing. The other strives to create something that brings in a lot of wealth and fame. Although class A also gains fame and wealth, yet they do this by moral and soci al construction of the society, unlike class B who is intent on blowing it to smithereens. A writer possesses a partial dominance over others; he has the absolute trait of being able to create. This makes him the most helpful and the most dangerous person of the society. He can be the creator of the protagonist who, like the phoenix, contributes in raising a nation from ashes to the heights of glory. Or he can be the villain who, using means clandestine and apparent, destroys the framework which is the base of a nation. Today we have a tremendous obligation to fulfill. We, the writers are the saviors. We are the ones who must save this society teetering on the verge of collapse. Together, we can make a difference. Every constructive thought that we transfer onto paper, amalgamated, will swell to form the tsunami that washes away the century-old grime and dust from our society’s frame of mind. We have been rolling like self-conceited prigs in the mire of oblivion. Now let us rise and shine, the illuminating rays of the glorious sun reflecting the clarity of our perception. We can transform this society in a place where all, rich and poor, bourgeoisie and proletariats will be able to sing, the music of their voices synchronized to form the symphony of humanity: â€Å"Worship the rising sun O ye! All thee! Not in interests vested But for the greater good.†