Boy in a Blue Shirt 1918

Amedeo Modigliani made this painting of a "Boy in a Blue Shirt" and straight away I’m drawn to the way he’s layered the colours on. There’s a real sense of the process, of how the painting came to be, the building of layers of colour. Modigliani’s colours feel earthy, that blue-green shirt against those warm reddish browns. It’s a combination that vibrates in an interesting way. And look at the face: those red cheeks and the muted green of the eyes. The paint isn’t overworked, it's thin, almost translucent in places, like he’s trying to capture a feeling more than a likeness. It reminds me a bit of Chaim Soutine, that same expressive distortion, that feeling of capturing something raw and emotional. Modigliani and Soutine, they were both part of this incredible moment in Paris, trying to figure out how to make painting new, and how to make it honest. It’s about the ongoing conversation between artists, the way we bounce ideas off each other, and the way we keep pushing.