The career of the Italian-born painter and sculptor

Amedeo Modigliani was brief, but prolific.

This catalogue accompanies the retrospective

exhibition organized by LaM - Lille Métropole Musée

d'Art Moderne, d'Art Contemporain et d'Art Brut, which

boasts one of France's finest public collections of work

by the famous artist of Montparnasse: no fewer than six

paintings, seven drawings, and a rare marble sculpture,

all acquired by Roger Dutilleul and Jean Masurel, founders

of the museum's collection of modern art.

Echoing the exhibition's layout, the catalogue Amedeo

Modigliani: The Inner Eye revisits Modigliani's output,

focusing on three aspects of his life and work. The

authors turn the spotlight on the years during which he

was interested mainly in sculpture, examining his artistic

dialogue with ancient and non-Western art and quest

for a "synthesizing," spiritual art. As World War I broke

out, Modigliani was developing his style as a portraitist,

using as models the artists making up the free-spirited

community on the fringes of society to which he

himself belonged. This volume also explores the special

relationship between Modigliani's work and the

collector Roger Dutilleul; the two met in 1917, less than

three years before the artist's premature death.

The catalogue includes approximately one hundred

reproductions of paintings, drawings, and sculptures

by Modigliani, alongside works by Constantin Brancusi,

Pablo Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz, Chaïm Soutine, Moïse

Kisling, and Henri Laurens, among others.