Wednesday 24 August 2005

amadeo modigliani


An audiobook in the car, nothing profound or special. In fact, it's a mundane novel that seems, mostly, to be about real estate. Out of nowhere, an insight from a minor character who is a craftsmen. It's easy, he says, to make elaborate things look right. It's much harder to make simple things look right.

It puts me in mind of the work of Amadeo Modigliani. I want to sit for hours in front of each painting and just look. This work, to me, is perfection, everything art should be.

It is simple yet profound, clear but complex, perceptive but subtle, abstract yet representational, idealized yet realistic.

Most important, it tells the truth without being distracted by the facts.

I wish I could write like he painted.