About Modigliani Skateboard Polyptych – Nu Couché (1917-1918) | Musart on Decks

Bringing together tradition and contemporary culture, Musart Boutique is proud to present our exclusive original collection Musart on Decks featuring limited edition skateboard decks, displaying art historical timeless masterpieces which bridge the traditional history of art and contemporary skateboarding culture at accessible prices. Part of Musart Boutique’s original collection Musart on Decks comes to this exclusive limited edition of 100 Amadeo Modigliani Skateboard Polyptych (set of 5) displaying his masterwork Nu Couché (1917-1918) sold at Christie’s auction house on November 9, 2015, for $170.4 Million to Chinese Billionaire investor and art collector Liu Yiqian for the Long Museum in Shanghai, co-founded by Mr. Yiqian and Mr. Wang Wei. In the art historical tradition of representing reclining nudes, Amadeo Modigliani produced this painting as a series of female nude works for Léopold Zborowski to be displayed in his first and only solo exhibition held at Galerie Berthe Weill in Paris. The crude rendering and un-idealized depiction of Modigliani’s female nudes displayed in one of the windows of the gallery caused a crowd to stand outside of the gallery and eventually had authorities request the immediate closure of the exhibition. Although Modigliani’s reclining nude posture reminds of quintessential masterworks such as Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1534), the crude impasto paint application, and the unadorned representation of the nude (e.g. underarms and pubic hair) bears striking similarities with works such as Edouard Manet’s Olympia (1863).A true masterwork of Modern Art, Modigliani’s Nu Couché resembles the strife of modern artists to demythologize the female nude and other art historical traditions with the purpose of providing the spectator with an unadorned, honest representation of the subjects.

• Musart on Decks, Nu Couché (Reclining Nude) (1917-1918), Polyptych Limited edition of 100, Skateboard Decks – Set of 5.
• Material: 100% Canadian/American Maple wood.
• Measurements Mellow Concave Skateboard set of 3: (Angles) Approx. 19.25º nose and 18.5º tail with a medium center concave. (Dimensions) 32″H x 8″L x 0.5″W Inches (est.)
• Weight: 15.63 lbs (est)
• Additional Features: Includes Skateboard Deck Display wall mounts.
• Modigliani, Amadeo (1884-1920). Reclining Nude (Nu Couché). 1917-1918. Oil on canvas. Formerly in the Mattioli collection. Sold at Christie’s on November 9, 2015, for $170.4 Million. Private Collection. Photo Credit: Scala / Art Resource, NY.

About Amadeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of Jewish heritage. His work and style can be immediately recognized because of his extraordinary interpretations of the human face, maintaining his individuality through his the typical elongation of shapes. His works were not received well during his lifetime but later found acceptance. Modigliani was born in the Tuscan town of Livorno and received his academic education in Florence and Venice. In 1906, he established himself in the famous Montmartre area in Paris, where his talent was instantly recognized by the East European avant-garde and came into contact with prominent artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși. Modigliani had a short and eventful artistic life and was extremely driven and longed for recognition. But his life was also marked by alcoholism, metaphysical fears, and progressive tuberculosis. He took to excessive drinking and drugs and was frequently in poverty. He died at age 35 in Paris of tubercular meningitis and left the world an oeuvre that shows a sincere, obsessive search for truth and purity in art.