The Modigliani exhibition at the Jewish museum continues their tradition of finding new ways of seeing artists and architects we think we knew everything about.

Modigliani is hugely popular, so much so that a recent museum show in Italy had to be dismantled because of the number of fakes that were ultimately discovered. His auction prices are on the moon.  Here, in this collection of early drawings derived principally from the collection of his early patron, Dr. Paul Alexandre, I learned instead of his ownership of his Judaism, his married American lover Maud Abrantes, his relationship and mutual respect for Russian poet Anna Akhmatova and his obsession with non western art.  

The exhibition is quiet and important. With Louise Bourgeois (see below) unfolding and Modigliani unmasked, it is a good moment in New York.