Young Woman 1910

Amedeo Modigliani painted this portrait of a young woman, using oils, with a distinctive style of elongated forms and simplified features. The face is constructed with bold brushstrokes, with hues of reds and oranges set against a somber background of blues and blacks. The eyes, reduced to dark slits, and the elongated nose create a sense of elegant detachment. Modigliani’s reduction of form can be seen as a semiotic act, simplifying the human figure into a set of signs. Each line and color choice directs our gaze and shapes our understanding. The flattening of space and the emphasis on surface invite a reading of the artwork not as a representation of external reality, but as a constructed image. In this painting, the subtle asymmetry and the nuanced colour palette challenge any fixed or singular interpretation. This speaks to the capacity of art to destabilize established meanings and values, to question fixed categories, and to offer a space for ongoing interpretation.