? Part1. The Elegant "Madman"

Gombrich said, "There is no such thing as art, only artists."

Primitive Desire It is always attracting art creators and also attracting "Mad Schiller".

In the movie "Dead Poets Society" Anderson said: A chilling madman.

This applies most appropriately to Schiller. Van Gogh was also a madman, but Van Gogh’s madness lies in the madness of his brushstrokes, while Schiller’s madness lies in the almost ugly reality.

I learned about Schiele by accident. I have repeatedly mentioned that "The Yellow House" is the painting I am most obsessed with, and Schiele painted an almost replica of "The Yellow House", which is quite a tribute.

Later, I slowly started to look at his paintings, and I couldn’t stop myself.

I still think Schiele’s paintings are quite rude.

Just like I think the human body should represent beautiful things. For example, Wyeth's "Helga Series" or Giorgione's "Sleeping Venus". The former is full of lust, while the latter has a religious connotation of holiness.

But Schiele’s human body is too direct. He will destroy and tear apart your perception of beauty - the manic lines, the cold and slender shapes, and the broken color blocks are all difficult to reconcile with beauty. To put it into context, the original flavor is frighteningly rich.

You say it is ugly, but it is difficult to think of Giorgione or "Sleeping Venus" in your mind.

Before coming into contact with Schiller, I had never thought that the truth of the self could be achieved through absolute physical nakedness.

In the end, you have to admit that he is an artist who becomes more and more surprising the more you look at him.

A number of outstanding painters emerged at the end of the 19th century. Everyone knows Klimt, one of the greatest painters of the 20th century. By that time he was already very famous.

Schiele was Klimt’s most loyal disciple. Klimt contacted the studio for Schiele, shared his favorite models with Schiele (including Villani), and introduced art dealers to him. , taking him to attend the top art exhibitions at the time.

Schiele lost his father at an early age, and Klimt seemed to assume the role of a father at certain moments.

Klimt’s influence on Schiele is undoubtedly huge, especially in his early paintings. Even when Schiele was classified as a pure expressionist painter in his later years, his concise hand-drawn lines The application still retains the shadow of Klimt, and has a taste of transcendence.

After 1900, all the subjects in Klimt’s portraits became women. The women in his paintings are beautiful and docile, but also psychedelic and passive, like golden cages. Bird, looked nervous as hell.

Schiller also likes to depict women. On the contrary, the women in Schiller's paintings are more aggressive. They are not afraid of eye contact and stare directly at the audience, even if their bodies are exposed. There is no trace of shyness at all.

This is probably because Schiller was shrouded in death throughout his childhood──three brothers, sister and parents all died one after another. It can be said that death is like a ghost, lingering around him all the time. The long-term depressive atmosphere also formed a vague "fearless" atmosphere in the painting.

Schiele later created many portrait paintings with the theme of "embracing". If you look closely, this part rarely reveals feelings of pity and uneasiness.

In most places where Schiller could fully display his talents, people would always compare him with his mentor Klimt. Obviously, Schiller's performance style at that time was far inferior to Klimt's. So lovable.

. ? Part2. Lover

For the painter, every model he uses is a "lover".

Schiele’s first nude model was also his only family member to depend on—his sister Gertie. Gertie accompanied Schiele intermittently throughout his short life. Their relationship was very similar to Theo and Van Gogh. At the same time, Schiele created a large number of body paintings for his sister.

Until now, it is difficult for the public to accept this kind of ethical painting.

In 1913, Schiele was finally caught up in the "girl abduction scandal" for abusing underage girls as mannequins. Schiele's self-pleading in court was not recognized by the judge, and when the painting was burned in public , Schiller's eyes were dim and dull.

Ironically, it was also during this imprisonment that Schiller began to be truly understood by the world outside Vienna.

Villani was Schiele’s second model and the most important “lover” in Schiele’s life.

In 1915, Schiele created two works with ambiguous positions──One depicts "Man and Girl" by his lover Villani, who has lived with him for many years, and the other depicts his newlywed wife. "The Embrace" by Edith.

Also in this year, he abandoned his long-time lover Villani and decided to marry his neighbor Edith.

We don’t know the reason, and we don’t want to speculate.

In the same year, World War I broke out and Schiller was drafted into the army. Villani chose to become a medic in order to meet Schiller. The tragedy of the First World War instantly drowned most of the love between children, and Villani never saw Schiller again.

A long time later, most people forgot about Vigna, perhaps even Schiller himself. However, when he later received the obituary that Vigna died on the battlefield, Schiller silently mentioned the "man" Changed to "Death", which later became known to the public as "Death and the Girl", the girl wraps around Death's arm and becomes a skeleton. At about this point, Schiller regarded himself as Villani's god of death.

On the eve of his death in 1918, Schiele created a large number of sketches of his wife Edith.

The "love" that permeates "The Embrace" and the "death" revealed in "Death and the Maiden" are like the two sides of a coin. In the last moments of his short life, Schiller was always there. The coin was tossed over and over again.

No one knows which side the Austrian giant has chosen.

However, Schiller injected an avant-garde style into conservative Vienna at the end of the 19th century.

Looking at it from today’s perspective, Schiele’s works are no longer considered dark, but today when we can explore without any taboos, it seems that we can no longer find what Schiele had in that era. It has an elegiac temperament.

Speaking of "nakedness",

nothing is more commonplace than it is today.

?