NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby's will offer one of the great icons of 20th century sculpture in its Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York on 4 November 2014. Amedeo Modigliani's Tête from 1911-12 belongs to a rare series of sculptures carved in stone, depicting goddesses of captivating beauty. The artist liberated these extraordinary female heads from blocks of stone scavenged from construction sites across Paris. At night, Modigliani would illuminate them by candlelight, creating a sacred space for his powerful and enchanting figures.

The present Tête is one of the very finest that Modigliani created. The work has never been offered at auction, and is one of few examples remaining in private hands. It is estimated to achieve in excess of $45 million in the November Evening Sale, and will be on view at Sotheby’s London galleries from 12---18 October before returning to New York for exhibition in Sotheby’s York Avenue headquarters beginning 31 October.

Simon Shaw, Co-Head of Sotheby's Worldwide Impressionist & Modern Art Department, commented: ‘‘Modigliani's Têtes rank among the most revered sculptures of the 20th century. Working alongside Constantin Brancusi, he believed that direct carving and staying true to materials were critical if sculpture was to be reborn for the Modern age. The present Tête has a truly mesmerizing aura, and is recognized to be the greatest Modigliani sculpture in private hands.’’

Modigliani's Têtes reflect his devotional mania for carving, or the liberation of form from a block of stone. The artist believed that the practice of modeling had tainted this art, particularly the work and influence of Auguste Rodin. His passionate avowal of direct carving is especially evident in the richly varied surface texture of the present Tête, which displays an expressive handling that emphasizes his creative process.

Tête was created in 1911-12 from a single block of limestone known as pierre d'Euville, a porous rock quarried in eastern France. Modigliani found such blocks on construction sites around Paris --- including work on the Paris Metro --- and carted it in a wheelbarrow back to the Montparnasse studio he shared with Brancusi. While Brancusi's influence is felt in smooth passages of carving, another important inspiration was the streamlined Baule masks from the Ivory Coast. Modigliani had seen many examples of these African masks and Congolese fetish objects at the Musée du Trocadéro.

Tête was exhibited at the Paris Salon d'Automne of 1912 in the famous Salle des Cubistes, a landmark exhibition in the history of modern art. Photographs of the exhibition show the present work taking the dominant position in the semi-circular arrangement of Modigliani’s Têtes . His sculptures were displayed alongside Cubist works by the pioneers including Fernand Léger and František Kupka, and offered a sensual alternative to the more severe, geometrical works of his contemporaries.

The present Tête was purchased directly from Modigliani by the celebrated British artist Augustus John. The sculpture was subsequently sold in 1955 to Dudley Tooth and thence through the Hanover Gallery to a private collector in Belgium. Today, the work is one of the rare stone carvings by Modigliani to remain in private hands. With only about two dozen known in existence, the vast majority belong to prominent museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; The Tate Gallery, London; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

MODIGLIANI AT SOTHEBY’S
Sotheby’s has sold five works by Modigliani for more than $20 million at auction, including the current world auction record price of $69 million for his painting Nu assis sur un divan (La belle romaine) from 1917, which has remained the artist’s record since 2010.