Egon Schiele - Portraits

This catalogue accompanies a major exhibition devoted to the portraiture of Egon Schiele (1890-1918). Despite a career that lasted less than a decade, Schiele is considered one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele is celebrated for his singular style of draftsmanship, unusual use of color, and physically raw, often sexually provocative depictions of his sitters.
Schiele's expressive style and controversial subject matter played an important role in the advancement of modernism in Europe. Included in this publication are essays by leading scholars on various aspects of Schiele's work. Christian Bauer reconsiders the artist's early career. Jane Kallir writes on Schiele's patrons. Diethard Leopold offers a psychoanalytic interpretation of the artist's work. Ernst Ploil argues that the painting Procession (1911) is a kind of coded self-portrait of Schiele.
Lori Felton examines the artist's double self-portraits. And Alessandra Comini considers Schiele in the context of his time. Both the catalogue and the exhibition are divided into six groupings of the artist's work : Family and Academy ; Fellow Artists ; Sitters and Patrons ; Eros ; Loyers ; and Self-Portraits and Allegorical Self-Portraits. In addition, there is a section highlighting a traumatic and pivotai period in Schiele's life : his arrest and imprisonment during the spring of 1912.
The color plates document the evolution of the artist's style, bath pre- and post-imprisonment. Schiele's untimely death at the age of 28 adds a mythic quality to his abbreviated career.