From Publishers Weekly
Painter Egon Schiele enjoyed an astonishing range of accomplishments before his premature death at age 28, from being accepted to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts at 16 to being deemed "the foremost painter of his era" a mere 11 years later. In between, Schiele's talent and reputation flourished despite his intermittent poverty, conscription into the Austrian army, and imprisonment for exposing minors to pornography. Kallir, co-director of the esteemed Galerie St. Etienne, plunges into the artist's biography, never sensationalizing, never sidestepping, but deftly twining Schiele's artistic development together with his turbulent personal life and the shifting political landscape of Habsburg Austria. Whether exploring the influences of Oskar Kokoschka and Gustav Klimt, speculating on the precocious artist's psychological maturity, or scrutinizing Schiele's "glaring negative space" and "gyrations of the paint," Kallir offers lively, candid prose that never succumbs to jargon. Many of the lavish reproductions are instantly recognizable as vintage Schiele-the frank depictions of pubescent sexuality, the stark, attenuated self-portraits, the later society portraits, each marked by a distinctly virtuoso line. But unexpected treasures abound, too-Kallir's catalogue raisonnée includes the painter's early efforts in the Viennese Secession style as well as often overlooked vibrant landscapes and still lifes. Kallir's even-handed tone provides the perfect textual complement for a catalogue teeming with Schiele's raw expressionism and is a precious volume for any student or scholar of 20th-century art. 201 illustrations, 94 in full color.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Egon Schiele (1890-1918) was one of the most influential and popular painters to emerge from the cultural ferment that characterized Vienna at the turn of the century. Yet despite the appreciation of his art, the "real" Egon Schiele has remained elusive. This biography, first published together with Abrams' catalogue raisonné of Schiele's work, offers fascinating insights into the artist's brief and sometimes troubled life.
Basing her text chiefly on firsthand sources, many of them previously unpublished, Schiele expert Jane Kallir provides a vibrant account of the artist's childhood and early adulthood, his turbulent encounters with Vienna's patron class, his sexual escapades and imprisonment on a morals charge, his ultimately disappointing marriage, and his premature death at the age of 28. Interwoven with the story of the artist's life is a balanced presentation of his art-the mature and relatively placid pieces together with the turbulent Expressionist work-lavishly illustrated with 94 full-color illustrations and 107 duotone plates. Printed on extra-fine paper with extraordinary reproductions, this beautiful volume stands as the definitive biography of Schiele the man and the artist.
