French masterpieces frame the modern era

The ongoing exhibition Picasso, Modigliani & Modern Art: Masterpieces from LaM Museum at the Bund One Art Museum in Shanghai marks one of the largest showcase of Italian modern artist Amedeo Modigliani in China, "a rare opportunity" for locals, according to Xie Dingwei, founding director of the museum.

Modigliani, who passed away at age 36, left behind about 300 paintings scattered around the world. The Shanghai exhibition features six paintings and three works on paper, which makes this the first time Modigliani's art has been exhibited on a large scale in China.

The exhibition is jointly presented by the Bund One Art Museum and the French institution Lille Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art, and is open to the public through Feb 9.

It presents 61 paintings from 18 avant-garde artists, led by five paintings by Pablo Picasso and six by Modigliani. According to the exhibition's curator, Jeanne-Bathilde Lacourt from LaM, the French museum was founded in 1983 at the bequest of French collector Jean Masurel. Masurel was the nephew of entrepreneur and art connoisseur Roger Dutilleul, one of the important collectors of Modigliani's works.

Dutilleul and his nephew Masurel built an exceptional body of work, both very personal and representative of the greatest artistic movements of the modern period in France, Lacourt says.

This is the first time LaM has presented an exhibition in China. Lacourt says: "We want to show our best masterpieces and also show something representative of the story of the collection.

"We picked Cubist paintings, Fernand Leger and Modigliani. We also wanted to show less famous artists who didn't get as much fame as Modigliani and Picasso and the collectors' interest in self-taught artists and more abstract painters such as Andre Lanskoy."