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Modigliani: Beyond the Myth exhibition catalogue. Mason Klein, ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. 

Modigliani: Beyond the Myth

 

Exhibition and book 

 

The Jewish Museum, New York, May 21, 2004 - September 19, 2004

Art Gallery of Ontario, October 23, 2004 - January 23, 2005

The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, February 19 - May 29, 2005

Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) is one of the greatest—and most misunderstood—artists of the twentieth century. His incisive portraits, erotically charged nudes, beautiful drawings, and primitivistic sculpture have been admired for decades. Typically, Modigliani’s work has been examined in the limited context of his so-called bohemian, anti-intellectual lifestyle. The Jewish Museum exhibition – the first major Modigliani show in New York since the 1951 MoMA retrospective, – accompanied by a lavish scholarly publication, presented a convincing reevaluation of Modigliani’s position within European modernism. It looked at the artist and his art from a variety of important perspectives: his proud heritage as a Sephardic Jew, whose spirituality embraced non-Western, classical, and Christian iconography while retaining his own ethnic identity; his critical engagement with the dialogues of the most radical of his avant-garde contemporaries (Picasso, Soutine, Matisse, and Brancusi); the influence of tribal art and Judaism on his portraiture; and the representation of the female nude in his works from a feminist cultural perspective.

 

Suzanne Zuber worked with Dr. Klein on this international traveling exhibition and catalogue. As project assistant, she·

  • Oversaw the work plan, budget and loan status for over 100 artworks ·

  • Collaborated with museum staff on exhibition concepts, interpretation, selection of works, installation, programming and publicity·

  • Facilitated and negotiated loans with international lenders··

  • Managed and wrote federal application for immunity from seizure and indemnity for 180 artworks, covering all three exhibition venues. Application preparations included provenance research 

  • Created checklist databases, maintained files and exhibition notebooks· ·

  • Researched, wrote and edited interpretive wall texts ··

  • Instructed and supervised docents, conducted educational tours··

  • Internal: gave lectures to docents and other museum departments ··

  • Representing the museum: gave public lectures and donor tours··

  • Requested photography and procured reproduction rights for publication

 

 

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