Even a year ago, “Modigliani: Unmasked,” an exhibition at New York City’s Jewish Museum, would not have been as timely, though its pleasures would have been just as assured. A showcase of Italian-Sephardic Jewish Amedeo Modigliani’s work as a sculptor and a craftsman suggests his defiant embrace of his outsider status informed his identity as well as his art. More than that, the show reminds us of the extraordinary creative work that can arise despite – and to spite – repressive political climates.

In 1906, when Modigliani emigrated from his native Livorno, an Italian port town known as a safe enclave for Jews, France was beset by nationalist anti-Semitism. Because of his fluency in French and his Latin good looks, he might have been able to assimilate as a Gentile. Instead, as the Museum’s curatorial notes report, he’d introduce himself as, “My name is Modigliani. I am Jewish.”