I caught the tail end of the Modigliani exhibition at the Royal Academy on Sunday. I've always been a bit of Modigliani fan anyway, so it was great to see so much of his work all in one place.

The show opens on a large head carved from limestone. Modigliani was introduced to Brancusi who persuaded him to get into sculpture to explore form as expression. The combination of this exploration, and Modigliani's existing knowledge of Afican and Asian sculpture informed the style he developed in his painting - the elongated features, the almond shaped eyes filled in with flat colour etc.

Even though Modigliani was not into Cubism, it is possible to see it's influence in some of the backgrounds of his portraits. His figures are usually seated in front of and framed by large panels of colours that seem to lock the subject in place.

Something you do get from seeing the paintings 'live' is a greater understanding of Modigliani's use of colour and also of how he used brush marks to differentiate foreground from background. Anyway take a look for your self...

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/