In his twenty-eight years on earth, Egon Schiele produced some of the most radical depictions of the human figure in modern times. Through his highly expressive, utterly uncompromising portraiture, he shoved away the parameters of self-expression, procreation, sexuality, eroticism and mortality – prevalent concerns in the socially and psychologically charged atmosphere of pre-war Vienna – in a breathtakingly original manner.
excerpt from Five Things You Might Not Know About Egon Schiele by Daisy Woodward
* As an extra credit assignment to be tabulated into your FINAL GRADE:
Research Egon Scheile.  You can begin with the links above.  Learn about his life, as well as the time period he lived in.  Then, write a well crafted (hint use a grammar and spell check!)  approximately  250- 300 word response.  Include details like why he was one of the leading figures in Expressionism, what kind of work he as known for and its importance, ass  well as person detail you find interesting.  Also include a piece of his art that particularly interested you.
POST your response and tag it DISCUSSION
*DUE in 2 weeks
In the time period to which Egon Schiele was creating his works, he was taken as a provocative artist. To him, the work he created is known as, “erotic works of art are also sacred” according to the article, Five Things You Might Not Know About Egon Schiele. He primarily focused on nudes of men woman and even new born nudes. Many of his works really have interesting facial expressions. His self-portraits also are proclaimed as “haunting” due to the eerie expressions. He is known to defy conventional norms when it comes to the human body. It was important to have this type of work out there due to the fact it created a disruption on a social taboo. When there is a push to break barriers it brings further attention to the topic. Although there is a notion that his work was “denounced as pornographic filth” however it still something that needed to be taken in to the light. The topic of nudity and erotic posture being used more often only brought normality. Personally, the details in the face of each work captivates me. The facial expression looks very simple and they catch the eye really well. Their faces really show the sudden shock as well a sense of apprehensiveness. Woman with Black Stockings, 1913, is the most interesting one to me due to the fact that her face shows a lot of different expressions. Her position as well is very bold. The significance of the stocking also adds to the exoticness of the entire piece. Egon’s work only brings forward a radical movement toward a different perspective of the human body.
Well observed Nira. Did you have a favorite image of Schile’s?
Egon Scheil is the one of the most prolific artists in the expressionism era. He made well over 3000 pieces of art work, all using expressionism, which uses dark color palette, dark imagery, and bold color lines. In his early years, Egon Scheil had instruction from an academy where he, alongwith many other artists who would become famous later in their careers as well. Scheil worked and protested in his first academy, as he saw it as very constrictive and old fashioned. His drawings were mainly either portraits and self-portraits. In his subject matters, he would often have his models posing nude. Also, when drawing, he would warp and mess with the parts of the body that people would usually consider attractive. Some of his paintings are draw with “mutilated” genitals. The sexual nature of his artwork is very apparent. He would often go out of his way to find models to pose nude for him. This one minded search found him in the ire of his neighbors, especially since he would look to young girls as models. Egon Scheil was very close with many of his peers. One of these peers include Gustav Klint, who was akin to Scheil’s mentor. The two were very close, with Klint showing Scheil work from other artists such as Vincent Van Gogh. One thing I found interesting about him, was how much he was willing to draw children. They are entirely to young to understand. It seemed that he was too engulfed by his work to understand that distinction of children in nude.
I too have wondered about that- the youth of his models. However, he seems to draw them without any sense of sexuality… just rawness.
Well written and good observations.
Egon Scheil is the one of the boldest and radically erotic artists of the Expressionism Era. With over 3000 works of art, he pushed Expressionism to its limit and then some. Expressionism is defined as art that modifies and corrupts the subject in as subjective as a way as possible to invoke a feeling. As a young man, Egon Scheil studied at an art school known as The Vienna Academy of fine Art. However, because of the school’s unyielding structure asked of him and every student he and his colleagues would protest and later drop out of college to pursue their art careers themselves. His art was often extremely erotic. Scheil’s artwork was looked at as extremely provocative; his art completely distorted and reshaped the idea of human nudity. He would often depict genitals and sexual organs very garishly, as well as use extremely unconventional ways to depict the naked body of people in general. He used shapes and chose colors that were very outrageous. His use of models was also extremely unorthodox. He had subjects that ranged from pregnant mothers to newborn children, which led to calling his artwork as a form of child pornography. He was even arrested for the depiction of a young girl in his artwork. He was very close to many of his colleagues, and none more so than his mentor, Gustav Klint. Both respected each other very much, and even had very different art styles. One thing interesting I found about Scheil was his fearless attitude when creating his art. I myself do not have the bravery to draw someone’s naked body, so for him to do so, and so often, is amazing.