Masterpieces Of Vienna (29 of 38)

Masterpieces Of Vienna

Intense as his relationship with Wally was, Schiele's greatest subject remained himself.
He painted hundreds of self-portraits and collaborated with photographers to produce dramatic images of the tormented artist.
Schiele was obsessed with his own image like no other 20th-century artist.
It 's true to say that a great many 20th century artists, particularly in the German speaking countries, were concerned with the self-portrait, with the self.
But none of them really can be compared with Schiele who was, not to put too fine a point on it, a narcissist.

I think someone said that it's no coincidence that the word ego is the beginning of Egon Schiele's name.
He has an ability to take something very personal and widen it up and make it into every man's experience, but clearly he's very interested in his absolute own visceral experience of life.
Sexual anguish loomed large in Schiele's brief life.
He even painted pictures of himself masturbating.
Schiele was not only fascinated by sex - indeed obsessed by it - he was also fascinated and obsessed by death.
Probably in equal measure.
When Schiele met Wally he was depressed and wanted to leave Vienna.
The great Gustav Klimt had told Schiele he was a remarkable artist but his work was not selling.
Schiele and Wally made the curious and ultimately disastrous decision to move to the small town of Neulengbach, 30 miles from Vienna.
Here, an unmarried Bohemian couple living together provoked suspicion.
Examples of Schiele's erotic preoccupations, drawings of very young girls, lay around the house he shared with Wally.