Egon Schiele
In the Mind of Great Artists
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“There is no new art. There are new artists.”
Egon Schiele
Schiele was a painter that left a huge work and some thoughts full of wisdom, although he just lived 28 years.
The phrase of the heading continues like this: “The new artist has to be completely true to himself, be a creator, be able to build his own foundations directly and alone, without relying in the past or in the tradition… the formula is its antithesis.”
An atypical artist for his time: in the time of the avant-garde movements, he did not believe in modernity or in formulas.
Schiele is one a clear example of Expressionism, without being part of any group and without specifically adhering to the movement. Simply because he was Expressionist to the extreme, he painted his own vision of things in a rough, brutal manner. He painted a sensuality that was eroticism qualified as “immoral”, with a touch of sadness, desperation, and anguish.
His drawing, of firm stroke, does not stop once it starts and it is never corrected. The contours marked with a thick line were directly inherited from his master Klimt, as it can be suspected at a glance.
Strong nudes, proud women in provocative attitudes, “immodest”, erotic, desperate embraces, psychological depth. It was a time when Freud’s thoughts and his new theories about the unconscious imposed.
He was one of the most skilful artists of the history, but he was misunderstood and rejected in his time. But it was obvious: he slapped people on the face by showing the human sufferings, the physical and moral deterioration, the desperation in the presence of existential emptiness and death.
Finally, time redeemed him. We find heartbreaking beauty and light behind that work. He tried to explain it once: “I think great painters have always painted figures. I paint the light emanating from the bodies.”
Image: Reclining Female Nude (1917).
Recommended links:
Egon Schiele, One of the Most Talented Draftsmen.
Characteristic Elements of Expressionist Painting.
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