| Artist: | Schiele, Egon |
|
|---|---|---|
| Title of Work: | Portrait of Friedericke Maria Beer | |
| Date of Work: | 1916 | |
| Nationality: | Austrian | |
| Context: | WWI, Vienna | |
| Movement: | Viennese Expressionism | |
| Medium: | Oil | |
| Subject: a portrait of the same woman who would later sit for Klimt. Schiele's portrayal is not the beautiful facade so much as an image of a figure lost in the void. The Art Nouveau surface ornamentation loses its decortive overlay as Schiele shifts attention to the psyche. No frame of reference except self. For Schiele, there is nothing but the self (solipsism). Even when he paints someone else, he is in effect painting a self-portrait. Style: the flowing, linear rhythms of Art Nouveau go angular and quirky here; Schiele's work is more edgy than sensual. There is no background, only the self as Klimt's horror vacuii gives way to the void. Context: Vienna, the city of Freud, becomes the backdrop for the transition from Klimt's elaborate surfaces to Schiele's uncovering of the self. In the move from facade to psyche, we shift from Art Nouveau to Expressionism; the sons against the fathers. Expressionist rejection of the facade. Schiele paints from inside out. | ||
