SCHIELE, Egon

Austrian painter, draughtsman and printmaker. He is, with Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980), one of the major figures of Austrian ExpressionismGLOSSARYExpressionism is an artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within a person. The artist accomplishes this aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements. In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements. More specifically, Expressionism as a distinct style or movement refers who became active in the years before World War I and remained so throughout much of the interwar period. Although the term Expressionist can be applied to artworks from any era, it is generally applied to art of the twentieth century. It may be said to start with Vincent van Gogh and then form a major stream of modern art embracing, among many others, Edvard Munch, fauvism and Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, the Brücke and Blaue Reiter groups, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Paul Klee, Max Beckmann, most of Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Dubuffet, Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer and the neo-expressionism of the 1980s., despite the brevity of his artistic career, which lasted only about ten years. While remaining faithful to the initialGLOSSARYthe first letter of the text in medieval manuscripts and early printed books, made to stand out emphatically by its colour, size, and ornamentation. influences on his work of the Vienna Secession, and in particular of the art of Gustav Klimt, he developed a personal and expressive style. He introduced psychologically and sexually intense subject matter that was radical in its subjectivity and highly influential on later generations of artists.

His distinctly personal style made him one of the most important representatives of early Viennese Expressionism. His oeuvreGLOSSARYThe complete body of works created by an artist. includes landscapes, portraits, and above all, nudes, which were considered scandalous in his day.