Propelled by illness, addiction, drink and drugs to abandon sculpture, Modogliani is a man for whom painting is a struggle, a painful obsession even. Despite his peers Picasso, Matisse and Soutine already flirting with consecration, his first one-man exhibition at Gallery Weill provokes outrage, and his nude paintings are taken off the walls. Mogidliani is as paradoxical as his paintings; passionate but inconstant, his love for his wife undermined by his nights with beggars. Even his friend and patron Leopold Zlobowski, deep in admiration of his talent, despairs.
