Schiele
Schiele's paintings: Expressive nudes and self-portraits, strange movements and morbid colours
Egon Schiele (1890-1918) - along with Oskar Kokoschka - is the painter who had the most long-lasting influence on the Vienna art scene after the great era of Klimt came to a close. After a short flirtation with Klimt's style, Schiele soon questioned the aesthetic orientation to the beautiful surface of the Viennese Art Nouveau with his rough and not easily accessible paintings.
Many contemporaries found Schiele's expressive nudes and self-portraits, with their strange movements and morbid colours, to be ugly and even morally objectionable--criticism which culminated in criminalizing the painter as 'obscene' and resulted in 1912 in an indictment and short jail sentence. However, not even his harshest critics could dispute the artist's extraordinary drawing talent.
About the Series:
Every book in TASCHEN's Basic Art Series features:
- a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist
- approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions
- a concise biography
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Schiele
Steiner, Reinhard
Softcover, flaps, 18.5 x 23 cm (7.3 x 9.1 in.), 96 pages, $ 9.99 |
- Reviews (2 items)
this is really a great book. i love the format, the text, and the art is very well done. it's a minor thing, but i like that the dimensions of the artwork is given in the caption. that's how an art book should be, and it always drives me crazy when you have to hunt for the information, or worse, when it's not in the book at all. as an artist, it is critical to know the size of the pice that is shown. understanding the image size is eseential to a completre understanding of the image. no matter how well written, if this information isn't in the book, it's not a book about art, it's a coffee table book. nice to look at, but if you read, it's a waste of time. in this case, however, not only are the reproductions very well done, but the text is very insightful, and provided a good deal of new insight on a fabulous artist. thoroughly enjoyed it.
michael wiant, United States
michael wiant, United States
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