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December 18, 2005
Egon Schiele Adoration Day
Writer's block. So I'm re-reading a biography of Egon Schiele who, along with Van Gogh and Francis Bacon, is one of my three favorite painters.
The Lovers, 1917
"Schiele's probing explorations of the emotional turmoil of late adolescence--fraught with existential uncertainty and sexual angst--have won him an enormous following. Though generally considered an Expressionist, he had none of the organizational allegiances common among his German counterparts. Rather, like Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Münch, Schiele was one of the isolate painters who taught the modern era to look at its soul." --from EGON SCHIELE: 27 MASTERWORKS, by Jane Kallir.
Self-Portrait with Hand to Cheek, 1910 and Self-Portrait, 1910
Schiele was born in Austria on June 20, 1890. His early work looks somewhat like Klimt, but gradually the paintings stripped away all that design and ornamentation stuff. I'm not embarrassed to say I've been known to burst into tears when I see an actual Schiele painting in a museum. Death! Disease! Existential unrest!
The Bridge, 1913
Schiele was tried & convicted for "public immorality" (for a mere nude drawing) when he was 22, and spent a little time in prison. His work got even more twisted and devastating after that. His wife died from Spanish influenza in 1918, and Schiele himself died from the same disease just a few months later at the age of 28 (on Halloween, same day my mom died). Sad to think of what he could have accomplished had he lived longer.
Portrait of Paris von Gütersloh, 1918
Agony, 1912
Posted by at December 18, 2005 11:09 AM
Comments
The self portraits by the artist remind me a lot of Nan Goldin's photography. In her collected works, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Goldin captures the everyday beauty in people and her surroundings. Scheile reminds me of Goldin's Brian-whom she photographed extensively. Even the poise in the paintings are similar to her photographs...
Posted by: Mr. Mark at December 28, 2005 10:12 AM
I watched a BBC documentary the other week about the 1918 flu, and there's evidence suggesting it actually started at Fort Riley, KS, a few days after soldiers there burned tons of manure. A few of the soldiers came down with sickness, the disease spread from army base to army base and then to the rest of the world when the US sent soldiers to Europe to fight in WWI. Therefore Kansas killed Egon Schiele.
Posted by: Mike Peterson at December 20, 2005 10:43 PM
Have you read Arrogance, Joanna Scott's novel about Schiele? If not, it's definitely worth checking out.
Posted by: Amanda at December 19, 2005 01:02 PM
I've been aware of Schiele for a long time. The Heckscher Museum, here in populous Huntington, NY, specializes in Expressionist art. I think you're correct in pointing out Schiele wasn't precisely an expressionist. I find THE BRIDGE interesting for two reasons: Schiele uses all of Klimt's colors and yet puts them to his own use. My second reason for finding it interesting is that it shows human suffering without actually depicting a human being. There is a man-made structure, of course, so naturally the subject is humanity. Schiele had a post-World War One sensibilty, but he had it long before the war itself. I fear if he had lived he would have been a target of the Nazis.
Posted by: Fred Wemyss at December 18, 2005 05:29 PM
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