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Classically trained in his native Italy, Modigliani was one of many young artists who converged on Paris in the early 20th century. But the avant-garde achievements of his short career were long overshadowed by his bohemian life story. Nicknamed “Modi,” a pun on “maudit,” the French word for “cursed,” he became involved in a series of turbulent love affairs, lived in poverty, struggled with alcoholism and substance abuse, and died. of tuberculosis at just 35 years of age.