Tony Cairns

Amedeo Modigliani. 'Jeanne Hébuterne', 1919. Included in the exhibition: 'Modigliani'; Tate Modern (UK), November 2017 - April 2018. Illustration 1: 'Jeanne Hébuterne', 1919. Modigliani [1884-1920] did few society portraits, preferring to paint close friends and acquaintances. The alteration and exaggeration of form - a distinctive characteristic of his art - makes some of the images veer towards a type of Expressionism. Sometimes the human subjects are depersonalised, like still-life objects. He seemed to hit upon a method of extreme elongation of the body in an intense period of sculptural activity, from 1909-1914. These stone carvings display an acknowledgement of primitive traditions, especially African. Individuals are presented as remote idols. A frontal and vertical attenuation of facial features appears to flatten the head: Illustration 2. In profile, however, there is a deep and unexpected recession, as each bust extends horizontall...

The Naked Self-Portrait: Women. 3: Violation. Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Susanna and the Elders' (1610 version). Illustration 1: 'Susanna and the Elders,' 1610, by Artemisia   Gentileschi (c.1593-1652).   Not precisely self portraits, Gentileschi's series of 'Susanna and the Elders'  paintings (1610, 1622 and 1649) function as a form of autoportrait 'by proxy.' The 1610 version is viewed as a breakthrough work (she was approximately sixteen years old) in which there may be coincidental biographical connections to the theme. The fact that it was completed only a year before the artist's rape, by Agostino Tassi (a painter who worked with her father,  Orazio , during a period in which Artemisia was probably 'groomed' by both Tassi and a papal clerk,  Cosimo   Quorli ), stimulates an alternative discussion regarding her level of identification with the subject: Susanna. Illustration 2: (top) Agostino Tassi - consi...