THE TORTURED ARTIST

Although he only made it to the age of 28, Egon Schiele is still known today as one of the most prominent Austrian artists and a great figurative painter from the turn of the 20th century. Because he died so young and because of the moving nature of his work, he has often been epitomized as the image of the ‘stereotypical’ tortured artist.

A self-portrait Schiele did at the age of 22.

I find his paintings fascinating because they hold so much energy, sorrow, emotion, charisma... He was recognized early in his life for his artistic abilities and followed them by applying to Kunstgewerbeschule (the School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna at the time. He also sought out Gustav Klimt, who was known for helping out young artists, but took a particular liking to Schiele and became his mentor. It was probably a combination of Klimt’s support (buying his early works, introducing him to potential clientele, etc) and his obvious talent that allowed him to lead a comparatively successful life as an artist at the time.



A portrait of his wife from 1918 (the year both he and his wife died, along with 20,000,000 other Europeans from the Spanish Flu Epidemic).

Although he dealt with his fair share of controversy towards his works (they were thought to be too scandalous, even at times compared to pornography) I’m impressed with the amount of recognition he did receive within his short lifetime. When he was in his twenties he was admired enough to have several solo shows, even one in Paris. This makes perfect sense to me because I love the quality of his work and really respect him as an artist, yet for the time that he was alive and painting it seems that someone of his stature getting that kind of recognition for his art is incredible. I was lucky enough to see a bunch of his works, paintings, drawings, sketches, when I was studying in Paris, France. He has an amazing eye for composition but what has stuck with me the most about his work is his use of color and detail. I saw a lot of portraits he did and the meticulous depiction of the hands of his subjects always grabbed my attention.

Also by Schiele ::
Egon Schiele is really a very inspiring artist to me, I love his style and the way that he uses paint. It was really fun getting to see more of his sketches and other works at the Vienne 1900 show in Paris; interesting getting a view into his 'process' and whatnot. I love the dark nature, almost brooding moods that his subjects give off. I think his use of oils is beautiful.
























So, just for fun, to the left is a quick drawing from my Winter 2005 sketchbook that I did at the "VIENNE 1900" [Klimt Schiele Moser Kokoschka] Show put on by the Galeries nationales du Grand Palais that I saw when I was living in Paris.

artist talk.

I saw two different artists speak on campus this week. On Monday night, I heard Anne Collier, the photographer, talk about her work. It was kind of interesting, I didn’t know much about her before I showed up at the MFA building to see her speak. She showed slides and seemed nervous.

"smoking (anne collier)"

Paired with her photographs I thought it was kind of appropriate, seemed more moving almost when she didn’t want to answer questions or talk in too much depth about her pictures. I like it when an artist’s work is personal, because it should be. While it was kind of odd that she was here to show us her pictures and talk about them but didn’t want to get into too much detail or really any detail at all, it made it seem like the pieces meant more to her because of that.

"problems (anne collier)"

Tuesday night, I saw the Chinese painter Zhi Lin talk about his work and his process as an artist. An amazing artist, it was a bit ironic because he talked and showed us his work in exactly the way I think artists should talk about their pieces. I would love to be as articulate as he was. He had a detailed presentation, including maps (he’s lived all over the world) and sketches and photographs from historic events that shaped his work. He has had a pretty amazing life it sounded like. His work drastically changed after the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, during which he was on a double decker bus in London. For the past fifteen years he has been working on five large scroll (seven feet by twelve feet) paintings: Five Capital Executions in China. It was pretty incredible hearing him talk about his process and seeing the slides of his works. I guess one of them is hanging in a gallery in Pasadena right now that I hope to get a chance to go see. Here is a link to the Koplin Del Rio website which has some good images of his work. http://www.koplindelrio.com/lin/capitalexecutions/lin.scrolls/index.html
"starvation (zhi lin)"

THURSDAYS