Schiele

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) 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 the style of Klimt, his mentor, 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. This book gives a concise overview of the brief, brilliant career of Egon Schiele.

Publisher Marketing: Naked truth: Radical and all-revealing figures With his graphic style, figural distortion, and defiance of conventional standards of beauty, Egon Schiele(1890-1918) was apioneer of Austrian Expressionism and one of the most startling portrait painters of the twentieth century.Mentored by Gustav Klimt, Schiele dabbled in a glittering Art Nouveau style before developing his own much more gritty and confrontational aesthetic of sharp lines, lurid shades, and mannered, elongated figures. His prolific portraits and self-portraits stunned the Viennese establishment with an unprecedented psychological and sexual intensity, favoring erotic, exposing, or unsettling poses in which he or his sitters cower on the floor, languish with legs akimbo, glower at the viewer, and thrust their genitalia into the foreground. His models are at times skeletal and sickly, at others strong and sensual. Today, his oeuvre is celebrated for its revolutionary approach to the human figure and for its direct and particularly fervent, almost furious, brand of draughtsmanship. This book presents key Schiele works to introduce his short but urgent career and his profound contribution to the development of modern art, which reaches right through to such contemporary talents as Tracey Emin and Jenny Saville.

About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions.

Contributor Bio: Taschen. Since 1994, Creative Director Giovanni Bianco has dedicated his unique artistic vision to the worlds of fashion, luxury and entertainment. In 2001, he formed Studio 65, where together with a team of artistic minds and innovative spirits, he serves a high profile, multinational clientele. High end labels like Versace, Miu Miu and Zegna number only a few of those that rely on the Studio's expertise to communicate their brands. In addition, Giovanni Bianco and his Studio have successfully used their savoir-faire to collaborate with Madonna on numerous projects since 2004.