Egon Schiele, in
most respects, is well known for his depictions of nude females. That may be
sugar coating the subject matter. Egon Schiele’s subject matter consisted
mostly of female’s genitalia, and sexual themes. Now that is by no means
downplaying or simplifying his work, for they truly are significant works of
art. If you were to visit an exhibition of Egon Schiele, I’m sure after the
first ten minutes of viewing an excessive amount of women’s breasts and genitals,
you would get over it and start to see the similarities within the work and the
significance as a piece of art. It is then when you could accept the work or
reject it entirely, chopping it up to typical male artist creating “pornography”.
I’m not speaking to the latter. Historically, the models from the area that
were used for these works of art were not interested in the artists or had any
sexual inhibitions about being in a room with a male artist. The center of the
human figure is a pivotal point that happens to correlate with the beginnings
of life, and sex. But, it is also simply a gratifying location for artist to
explore. The human’s pelvis is a fascinating work of art within its self, and Schiele
saw that beauty. The pelvis can take on so many positions for countless points
of views to produce numerous studies. All of this being said, the subject
matter is still loaded with sexuality, and tension between the viewers that
cannot be ignored.
Info and Photo Credit
Werkner, Patrick. Egon Scheile – Art, Sexuality, and Viennese
Modernism. California: The Society for
the Promotion of Science and Scholarship, 1994.
“Egon Schiele, Semi-Nude Girl with Red Hair” Google Art Project <https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/kneeling-girl-resting-on-both-elbows/JgFbSO4YxygRsQ?projectId=art-project>
(May 3, 2016)
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