New Interpretation of the Modigliani Style Hairstyle - Essay Example

Final Major Project Working Tentative or Theme: A New Interpretation of the Modigliani Style Hairstyle 2. Rationale and contextualization Amedeo Modigliani exemplified a style that rebelled against the organized bourgeois lifestyle of his early life. We all begin with a structure that society has determined for us, and as we grow into our socially prescribed roles we lose something of ourselves. Like Modigliani, we must tear down the false facades in order to release our true natures, by refusing to be limited in form and challenging the way we view ourselves and our surroundings. 2.1 Background and clarification of theme This theme revolves a new interpretation of the Modigliani style interpreted through hair style. Modigliani has pioneered Exaggeration and Distortion in composition. This unorthodox artistic style is applied to a perception of how hair trends may be in the future, but the distortion and exaggeration incorporated into the hair style is an attempt to drive the viewer beyond what is traditional and familiar. The viewer’s sentiment may range anywhere from surprise or delight, to perplexity and even confusion, and in the extreme even a strong dislike or disgust. This type of artistic style is disturbing to many, and not a few will decide that they find it unacceptable and for being vulgar and boorish. Many famous artists are not appreciated during their lifetimes; their creations are mocked and derided, and this is not difficult to imagine in the case of Modigliani and other avant-garde artists. People could not understand the artist’s vision and his concept of reality, at least during his lifetime, because contemporaries are exposed to the same environment, and being exposed to the same context, the normal expectation is to perceive things in the same context. However, a good artist is ahead of his time, and he sees things beyond the context of his contemporaries. In most cases, visionary art is ignored during the artist’s lifetime, but appreciated by succeeding generations, so it is only after the artist’s death and when many of his works have been destroyed, lost or scattered, that the pieces of art become valued, even priceless. It is thus a pity that while the artist lives, his philosophy conveyed through his art and lifestyle are lost to oblivion, only to resurface later on and accorded the value it truly deserves. It is this timeless element of Modigliani’s distortion and exaggeration that I wish to capture and translate to a fashion statement for the future. The distortion and exaggeration works to enhance that element in the artist’s vision that escapes and is lost to the everyday observer, and the emphasis is to draw the ordinary person’s attention to it. As fashion elements that existed centuries ago, such as Victorian and Baroque art, have been transmitted to the present and are now widely loved and accepted and incorporated into contemporary pop art, so too those fashion elements created today may constitute valuable art in the view of future generations. My intention now is to take Modigliani’s modernist painting style and translate it to my own art, in terms of fashion and hairstyle. I am moved when I think the number of precious and unique artworks that were lost through the decades; this is therefore my inspiration for doing this work, aside from the challenge of accomplishing this as a final major project – to depict the true nature of the person by the visual distortion or exaggeration of the human body. 2.2 Evidence of preliminary reference material in support of theme During the life of Amedeo Modigliani, he was an obscure painter who had only a single one-man show, and had to give away paintings in exchange for his subsistence. He died at the age of 35, penniless and destitute. Today, his most expensive painting was sold at auction, fetching almost US $70 million. His daughter Jeanne wrote a biography of her father, entitle Modigliani: Man and Myth. Other than this, there have been other literary and cinematic works about the man. Some five novels and two films dealt on his life; the films were entitled Les Amants de Montparnasse (The Lovers of Montparnasse), 1958, and Modigliani, 2004. Several paintings of his had become famous: Head of a Woman with a Hat (1907), Portrait of Juan Gris (1915), Portrait of the Art Dealer Paul Guillaume (1916), Portrait of Jean Cocteau (1916), and Portrait of Jeanne Hebuteme (1918). The last work was a portrait of his lover, who committed suicide two days after his death in 1920 while she was pregnant nearly full term with his child. The angst in the life of the painter provides a theme for the distinctive style to be displayed in hairstyle. The various paintings that display his elongated style and pan faces shall provide ample reference for the major project I am to complete. 2.3. Familiarity of theme to show an understanding of your referencing Modigliani’s visual style reflected his unique view of the world that reflected a bohemian disenchantment with his bourgeois lifestyle, but at the same time transposed his images such that the viewer is drawn to an emotional depth in the figure, heightened by the physical distortion and exaggeration. Strangely enough, while the images are disproportionate and gaunt, they are not grotesque nor unattractive. He drew beautiful women and, though shorn of their conventional portrayal in his works, they still emanate a raw attractiveness under his paintbrush. He is best known for his Reclining Nude (1919) and Nude on a Divan (1918), which, along with his other works, display some influence of Toulouse-Lautrec Cezanne, Picasso, and Botticelli. They also evoke some semblance to both African sculpture and his Italian upbringing. His painting are raw and delicate, with long, sinuous lines, flat forms, asymmetric and imbalanced eyes, arms and legs, and conveying a near classical-early Renaissance style. While the forms show figures in static and even reclining positions, there is a dramatic intensity in the narrow eyes and unsmiling, uneven lips. Necks are long and shoulders are drooping, and hair is usually limp or sparse and shoulders are drooping, giving the figures an intense and mesmerizing expression. Of his many paintings, it is his work on nudes that draws special attention. There is a slight difference in the author’s painting style where he renders women’s bodies. Where his other paintings are flat and two-dimensional, his nude figures are rounder and most substantial. They more closely approach realism, even to the location of body hair, whereas when compared to the rest of his portraits, the subjects are highly stylized, like a cross between the African style of sculpture and contemporary European style of painting. 3. Aim and Objectives The project is a 5- to 10- minute film feature that will seek to capture the artistic essence of Modigliani, through the interplay of two entirely different artistic media – hairstyle, comprising visual art, and film, employing visual, sound, and performing arts. Firstly, the hairstyle and is to be designed to capture the essential impact of Modigliani – the blend of the African ethnic, Italian, French, and Jewish, and discernible influence of Picasso and Boticelli, distorted and exaggerated while at the same time graceful and sensuous, with cubist and classical elements coexisting within the same frame of reference. My objective is to show, through my artistic design, the paradox of coexisting contrasts in the life of ordinary people. Primitive past and contemporary present are drawn together much as in Modigliani’s combination of African and European art. Picasso’s cubism and Boticellis’ early renaissance can co-exist and even blend in undiscernible combination. Finally, stationarity and motion will be exploited in the use of film as medium, in a dynamism that begins from the self, transposes to the non-self, then becomes the self again. 4. Proposed methodology – practice and theory The methodology will combine the artistic directions in hair style with make-up, styling, material, and photography, while keeping in mind the health, safety and technical aspects of the models, staff and crew involved in the filming. The work shall uphold the strength of contemporary, 21st century hair styling, with the unique Modigliani blend of primitive African and neoclassical European art. The film shall play on colour, shadow hair surface-based hues, to convey a sense of high fashion with the timelessness of a great artist’s (Modigliani’s) style and my interpretation of his vision and the semantics of his art. The foregoing artistic considerations shall comprise the substance. The process shall abide by film production techniques, the technical considerations of the combination of light and sound to create the artistic impact. For the film’s models, ordinary people will be tapped, although they must be screened for their photogenic attributes and the naturalness of their character portrayal. For the purpose of this major project, the many and varied portraits by Modigliani shall be examined to provide the closest possible depiction of distortion and or exaggeration in hairstyle, in a manner that sets itself apart from other artists’ surrealism at the time. The designs will not mimic any of the paintings of Modigliani prima facie, because copying Modigliani directly based on visual style will only yield plain-faced, flat haired subjects that are foreseen to be utterly boring. I shall try to capture the essence of the distorted and exaggerated style as an expressive form of art, or at least my interpretation of the surrealism and distortion of the world view, and providing the mundane with a different, more intensely dramatic experience. While I shall draw inspiration from Modigliani, I will project the strength of my own design in the hairstyle and the entire artistic composition. Visually, it will be depicted in the same sense as the following picture embodies. 5. Content The work is to take the form of a 5- to 10-minute film, depicting persons sporting hairstyles that are distorted, exaggerated and asymmetric, with make-up and outfits that would complement and highlight the hairstyles. While the hairstyles are influenced by Modigliani, they will be my interpretation of his style, not a copy or mimic of his paintings or work. The film will feature contemporary settings but depicted in a serene and pensive manner. The images shall be depicted in subdued urban settings to capture the mood of Modigliani’s paintings. There will be no verbal dialogue; the mood shall be set and heightened by the use of appropriate mood music. The models shall continue to portray the impression of elongation and elegance that reflects a modernistic view of primitive African art and early Renaissance Boticelli. 6. Bibliography, references and contacts Amedeo Modigliani. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 7/1/2010 B. H., “Modigliani and his Models.” Craft Arts International, 2006, Issue 68, p92-93, 2p Bitsori, M & Galanakis, E 2003 “Modiglianis ‘fillette en bleu’: a case of juvenile dermatomyositis?” International Journal of Dermatology, May 2003, Vol. 42 Issue 5, p327-329; DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-4362.2003.01888.x Danto, A C 2004 “Body and Soul.” Nation, 7/19/2004, Vol. 279 Issue 3, p40-43 Jensen, J 2005 “Modigliani: Beyond the Myth.” Magill Book Reviews, 02/01/2005 Kauffmann, S 2002 The Court Painter of Montparnasse. New Republic, 11/11/2002, Vol. 227 Issue 20, p23-28 Lacayo, R 2004 “Bad Boy of The School Of Paris.” Time, 6/7/2004, Vol. 163 Issue 23, p119-120 Schiff, B 1994 “A line as clear and tensile as a lightning flash.” Smithsonian, Jan 94, Vol. 24 Issue 10, p64 Stewart, D 2005 “Modigliani Misunderstood.” Smithsonian, Mar 2005, Vol. 35 Issue 12, p72-78 7. Schedule (with staged outcomes) A New Interpretation of the Modigliani Style Hairstyle Final Major Project Project Timetable Date Week Activity Outcome Preliminary research Briefing about the final major project Database and conceptualization Trips to location and sites Discussing and planning the project with the film director and production staff and crew Preliminary agreements with director and crew Background notes for manuscript Sketching and rendering the final hair design and styling for the project Hairstyle designs Final styling concepts for the project Writing the manuscript Communicating with hair stylist and make-up artist Screenplay and set designs Final make-up and hairstyle designs Firm commitments with film director, production staff and crew Agreements / contracts Pre-production operations Rehearsals and briefing, cast (models) and crew Gathering and making clothing, materials for hair style and makeup Cast, crew, location, equipment & resources prepared Shooting the film Rough cut Evaluation of rough cut Revision/re-shoot as needed Post-production and editing First edited cut Evaluation with test audience Feedback on potential revisions Revisions and final editing Final cut Finalization, submission Finished film 8. Reflective statement Like all artists, I am influenced by the visions of the famous artists whose works have come to the attention of the world. I am fascinated by the power of their insights and the skills by which they are able to portray these insights in a manner understood by common men. This is my fascination with Modigliani’s work. Elegant rather than grotesque, placid and pensive, it is as if Modigliani had created through his paintings and sculpture his ideal world, in contrast to his own troubled lifestyle that led to his early and tragic death. Modigliani’s portraits are inward looking, oblivious to their surroundings and aware only of what is within, with a thoughtful, almost sad, expression. The physical orientation is reclined and stationary, a serenity with a sense of resignation rather than relaxation. Smiles are seldom, expressions are wistful. Models appear to be imbued with a sense of pathos. His art is a combination of “Dynamic primitivism of African sculpture and pure grace of the 15th century Boticelli style” (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia). I am struck by the fact that in their lifetimes, an artist’s genius is seldom appreciated. In his lifetime, Modigliani sold portraits at $10 apiece. Those paintings confiscated by his landlord to pay for his rent were stripped of their canvass to patch up old mattresses. However, in 2005 one portrait of Hébuterne fetched $31 million from an anonymous buyer in a Sotheby’s auction in New York. All these reflections will be contained in my final project – the depiction of past and present, turmoil and serenity, poverty and wealth, through the use of hairstyle and its rendition in film. I will show the coexistence of contrasting elements through my work. Read More