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| self portraits by schiele i've been swamped, again. (so goes fashion school finals), but here's a brief on one of my favorite expressionist painters and a quick flashback to when i was a fine arts student... ah the good ol' days of oil painting, screen printing, and live figure drawing. |
[SCHIELE SLIDESHOW COMING SOON]
A pioneer of the Expressionist painters, Egon Schiele created grotesquely beautiful renditions of the figure. His stroke was both heavy and fluid, contrasting the realistic renderings of art prior. Curving around the shapes of the body, the line ceased to delicately depict a subject, rather becoming at least as important as the figure itself. Scheile’s understanding of the human figure allowed him to manipulate the traditional portrait into the ultimate expression of humanity.
Born in Tulln on the Danube, Austria, in 1890, Schiele was a child prodigy who sought the teaching of Gustav Klimt and attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Drawing inspiration from Art Nouveau and the Impressionism, Schiele produced twisted figures with underlying themes of existentialism, death, and sexuality. The images were disturbing as the poses were foreshortened and unnatural. The figures were frail, suffering from the hardships of the first World War. He gained notoriety for his expressive style, dominant artistic talent, but also his pornographic imagery and underage models. His erotic female nudes and barely-clothed figures depicted his wife, lovers, and coming-of-age girls summoned to his studio. For this, he received much criticism, opposition, and even an arrest with almost a month in jail.
Despite the controversy, Schiele managed to make a positive impression on early twentieth century art. In his short life of twenty-eight years, Schiele produced over 3,000 pieces of stunning expression. He and his wife both succumbed to the Spanish Influenza in 1918, making his large body of innovative work even more impressive. With so much emotion sealed into such a young body, his heavy themes may have been too much to have sustained beyond his prime.
My own work has largely been figurative since I picked up a pencil, but my hand has always been delicate, precise, and noticeably feminine. Through art school I was challenged by my professors, peers, and myself to make something “ugly”. This deemed a near impossible feat, so I compromised with a contrast of “ugly” subject matter depicted in a soft and “pretty” style. With this approach, I find Schiele to be a perfect source of inspiration. I have taken his grotesque and provocative and interpreted it as lovely and delicate without losing his essence. Many of his figures are shown in lingerie, so I also pulled elements of turn-of-the-century undergarments into my details and silhouettes. The raw expressive line would be created by wires inserted in the seams of the garments, and the sheer organdies and organzas would reveal not only the construction of the garment, but also the frail figure underneath. Asymmetry and heavy draping suggest undressing. Though inspired by such a tragic artist, my garments should make the wearer feel beautiful and sensual rather than tasteless and destitute.
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| mood board |
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| my mini-collection so there ya have it. dark and twisted becomes my delicate fantasy.... i think i'm making the 2nd one from the left for my construction final! yay for having a summer romper just in time for school to get out! |
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