Portrait of a Woman 1915

Amedeo Modigliani made this "Portrait of a Woman" with oil on cardboard. The colour palette is fairly muted, but you can see how Modigliani has really worked at conjuring up the form with strokes of blue and green against the light ground. I imagine him, stepping back, squinting, trying to decide where to put the next mark. It's interesting because it's a portrait, but the way the paint is applied is so abstract, the woman seems to emerge as much from absence as from presence. Those dark accents around the edges—are they hair, or just shadows? You get the sense that Modigliani is in dialogue with other artists, like Cezanne, who was also interested in pushing the boundaries of representation. To me, painting is always a conversation, and the best paintings leave room for multiple interpretations, and embrace ambiguity.