Egon Schiel died at the age of 28 from the Castilian flu, but he continues to surprise and influence with his magnificent work. This introduction uncovers the keys to the defiant, provocative and often pornographic style of the artist who shocked Viennese high society and created some of the starkest and most disturbing portraits in the history of art.

Naked truth

Subversive and revealing figures

With his graphic style, distortion of figures and defiance of conventional ideals of beauty, Egon Schiele (1890-1918) was a pioneer of Austrian Expressionism and one of the most astonishing portraitists of the 20th century.
After a brief flirtation with the brilliant Art Nouveau style of his mentor Gustav Klimt, Klimt developed his own, much rawer and more aggressive aesthetic of sharp lines, morbid tones and elongated figures. His numerous portraits and self-portraits stunned the Viennese upper class with their unprecedented psychological and sexual intensity, favouring erotic, revealing or disturbing poses in which the models curl up on the floor, lie with their legs spread, glare at the viewer and show their genitals. His models could be skeletal and sickly or, conversely, strong and sensual.
Many of his contemporaries considered Schiele's work ugly and even morally questionable, and in 1912 the artist served a short prison sentence for obscenity. Today, his work is admired for its revolutionary vision of the human figure and for his distinctive, direct, passionate, almost furious brushwork. This book presents key works by Egon Schiele that reflect his brief but intense career and his profound contribution to the development of modern art, which has reached contemporary talents such as Tracey Emin and Jenny Saville.

About the author

Reinhard Steiner (born 1950) is Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Stuttgart. He specialises in late medieval and Renaissance art, as well as the art of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Publisher: Taschen