Egon Schiele by Frank Whitford

Egon Schiele Reviews

• 
  Anders

  The last book I read was Willeford's "Burnt Orange Heresy" featuring an aspiring art critic. This book is written by an art critic. I can get with most of what Whitford is saying, he's doing a good job walking the line of guessing and explaining of the deceased artist's intentions and real-life motives. I'm fascinated reading about turn of the century Vienna, and of course, the art that came out of the epoch mirrors the corrupt and false state of affairs in Austria-Hungary at the time, that's how the history books, like this one, lay it out.(Freud's Psychoanalysis, Second Viennese school's atonal music etc.) The Wiener Werkstatte was the high-ranking local art scene it seems. Every scene has a center and Schiele grew into it, in his own impressing way. Now, of course the thing I see when exposed to his art is an individual carving out vermilion, radical, but believable portraits. I like artist biographies, this attempt to chart the creative forces within a Schiele was a fascinating read in this regard. Lots of paintings included in the book, which is a huge plus.
• 
  Luca

  Everything you would want in an artist’s biography. Enough detail to keep you interested, enough left out to avoid excess or boredom. Tidbits about the life, historical context and criticisms of Egon Schiele the Austrian; all wound together with an analysis that attempts to puncture the veiled mind of the debatably troubled Egon Schiele the Artist. The Artist debases himself as a crywanker in pencil and paint, and the Austrian confirms himself as such through inflated self-aggrandisement and the over-exaggeration of his commitments to Gustav Klimt. Nevertheless, this adds even more mystery to the man’s notoriously duplicitous nature, the rotting decay of his self portraits standing completely at odds with the indulgence he craves at every turn toward a reflective surface.
  
  I expected his character to be more Kafkaesque: reserved, quiet as a mouse, elusive. Yet, Schiele’s personality, and indeed the outcome of his life, seems more akin to that of a penny-dreadful Dorian Gray: consumed in himself, ravaged by egoism, ultimately to be killed off by a sneeze. A real tragedy for such a genuine creative talent and divinely self-absorbed individual to have died at just 28 years old from something as benign as the flu; which I’m sure he’ll be turning in his grave at, as once again, his critics will claim that Klimt did it first.
• 
  C.A.

  Everything I wanted. Gave great background information while being easy to access. I'm always so curious on motivations and current events that influence artists.
  Will definitely be looking into other books by this author.
  
  When I was in Vienna last summer, I looked at everything I could by Klimt. The last museum I visited had a huge exhibit by his somewhat student & contemporary, Schiele, who I had never heard of. His art blew me away and now I'm mildly obsessed. So sad he died so young
• 
  Christopher Walker

  My time appears to have been apt - I read this in a single day at the start of 2021, with the latest flu pandemic raging all around us, and the number of dead from the virus approaching one and a half million globally; and here I read, at the conclusion of this fine book, that first Klimt, then Schiele's young, pregnant wife, and then finally Egon Schiele himself, all succumbed to the flu pandemic that raged even more fiercely a hundred years ago. A warning if ever one was needed.
  
  This superb biography covers not only the life of the artist Egon Schiele, but also the art circle he was a part of in Vienna between the start of the twentieth century and his death just after the Great War. Schiele's art continues to fascinate, but as a person he must have been extremely hard work. Is that at all surprising? Perhaps not - Schiele provides another lesson, in case one were needed, that we ought to dissociate the artist from the art.
• 
  Sophie

  Pretty interesting and inspiring for an art student, some parts did feel like filler though, and others as though they could have been worded much better.
  Overall good book though, I enjoyed it :)
• 
  Emily

  This is a really great overview of Schiele's short life and theories on his work. The author is obviously an admirer of Schiele's, but admits when his paintings were not fully resolved or his notions of himself and art were immature. Whitford also does a good job of explaining the cultural context of Schiele's oeuvre and debunks some of the "troubled, misunderstood artist" myths surrounding him. A little bit short but a good introduction to the artist that appeared to be really honest.
• 
  Edward

  Short but informative introduction to the artist, his personal life, development as a painter, and his reception by his contemporaries. Some illustrations in the text are in color but most are not. However, that is not a distraction as the author tries to convey the important aspects of Schiele's style in relation to the influence of Klimt, Kokoschka, and Viennese society during the beginning of the 20th century.
• 
  Lysergius

  Quite lavishly illustrated review of this artists life and work.
• 
  Marl

  this would easily be 5 stars if only it was much bigger.
  my favourite painter and a lucid text from mr whitford.
  always near my bedside this and there is always inspiration to be gotten from it : )