The Red Head 1915

This is Amedeo Modigliani’s painting, The Red Head. It's a face made with bold strokes and, honestly, kind of a weird palette. The colors are just so…there! It’s like Modigliani wanted to see what he could get away with, pushing that red right up against a kind of sickly green. It's all pretty thinly applied to the canvas. You can see the surface texture underneath, like he's letting the material of the painting speak for itself. Look at that line that defines the nose. It’s so direct, so unapologetic. It’s like he’s saying, “This is what a nose is, take it or leave it.” I think of painters like Marlene Dumas, who also weren’t afraid to lay it all bare, emotionally and formally. Art's just a big, ongoing conversation, right? It’s not about getting it "right," it’s about the questions you ask along the way.