Self Portraits

In his unfortunately short lifetime, Egon Schiele has depicted himself in various works of art more than one hundred and seventy times within twenty eight years. During that time Schiele has successfully explored the issues of his own physical identity, and psychological identity. In his piece Nude Self-Portrait, Grimacing, you the viewer are greeted with an ill stricken Schiele whose skin is depicted with ashy grey tones highlighted with crimson lips and areolas. Majority of Schiele’s self-portraits are depicted in this way. Did you ever hear the adage “it doesn’t matter what you look like, it’s what is on the inside that matters”? Well Schiele showed us what was on the inside, and it wasn’t always pretty, unlike academic portraiture that was popular at the time. He described in his work that the image created by looking into the mirror and recreating on canvas, is decay or disintegration of the body. It is with that breakdown of the body that Schiele was better to understand his own mind. A rather creative introspective exorcise that was advanced for his time. An aesthetic that Schiele was known for concerning his portraiture work was the lack of background information, and it comes into play in his self-portraits as well. By eliminating any background information, Schiele forces himself to the foreground and pushes the excessive sense of vulnerability. Egon was known for saying that he “wanted to experience everything”, and I believe by forcing himself (literally) in his work he is successful in that. 

Info and Photo Credit

“Egon Schiele, Nude Self Portrait (undated)” Google  Art Project https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/nude-self-portrait-grimacing/UAFiGZvm_vatHA?projectId=art-project  (May 3, 2016)

Zurich, Kunsthaus. Jenny Saville Egon Scheile. Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag Zeppelinstrasse., 2014.