In spring, the Leopold Museum devoted a large monographic show to the central artist of the collection: in Times of upheaval. Egon Schiele’s last years: 1914-1918 the focus is on the late work for the first time. The eccentric artist had only been granted almost ten years before he died of the “Spanish flu” at the age of 28. In this decade, Schiele created a comprehensive oeuvre, which is particularly known for his painting main works and the drawings in which he dealt with his own sensitivities and the self -questioning of an entire generation. From 1914, Schiele’s life learned dramatic private and historical twists, to which he had to adapt and which had an effect on his work. His self -relevantness faded and he became more receptive to external realities, focused on new topics and changed his artistic style.
The later oeuvre, which differs from a calm, flowing and organic line, more physical volume and reality as well as by increased empathy from the previous work is still less well known. Based on more than 130 works from the museum collection as well as loans from national and international institutions and private collections, the exhibition, which is structured in nine topics, interweaves biographical with artistic elements. The show researches Schieles’ stylistic and personal changes and thus gives new insights into its last phase of life, which was ended by the unexpected death in 1918. For the first time exhibited and completely published in the accompanying catalog, the diary of Edith Schiele provided by the Kallir Research Institute, in which his wife held her experiences and emotions between 1915 and 1918.
„The Leopold Museum houses with almost 300 works, including 48 paintings, the most comprehensive and most important collection of works by this outstanding protagonist of Austrian Expressionism. This is thanks to the early flair for the quality and extraordinary of artistic work as well as the obsessive passion for collecting the ophthalmologist Rudolf Leopold (1925–2010). Together with his wife Elisabeth Leopold (1926–2024), he shared an never-ending enthusiasm for the painter and draftsman, who was almost forgotten at the beginning of her collecting activity-in the 1950s. Today Egon Schiele is one of the internationally best known artists.
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Hans-Peter Wipplings, Director Leopold Museum
From Schiele’s search for the self -changing upheaval
To this day, Schiele’s work has been practicing an unbroken attraction. A large part of the works created until 1914, including numerous self -portraits, reflects his youthful search for one’s own identity in expressive poses and wild gestures. After Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia in 1914, Schiele was initially spared military duties and continued to know the art and its new neighborly acquaintance, Edith Harms.
Schiele’s favorite sister Gertrude “Gerti” married his artist colleague Anton Peschka in 1914, with whom she had an forward -marital love relationship and already a daughter. Her son was born shortly after the wedding – Schiele was now two -time uncle. Times of upheaval illustrated how the artistic examination of the topic of family was shaped by his family relationships: While mothers usually have no relationship with the child in his work and have a lifeless effect, babies become a symbol of vitality and creativity.
In 1915 Edith and Egon married, shortly after the painful separation from his partner Walburga “Wally” Neuzil. Immediately afterwards he had to move to Prague and later into the Bohemian Neuhaus. The restriction of freedom, the impressions of the war and the life -changing circumstances of marriage led to the youthful soul research and radical formal experiments. His allegorical paintings became universal and less self -related, the portraits more sensitive, his style in general.
Alienation and empathy
Around 1915, Schiele increasingly dealt with Paar motifs. Despite physical intimacy, there is often a lack of emotional connection, marionet -like mediation alienation: to be part of a couple relationship meant to have to take back aspects of himself.
„A few days after her wedding, Schiele had to leave his wife behind in a Prague hotel due to the call to the Kuk Army. Never before had Edith been so alone and hardly had the longer absences of her husband. She filled her diary, which she described as a ‘consolation book’ and which is presented for the first time in the Leopold Museum, with reports on her unbearable loneliness. Her mood changed between hope and despair. Edith’s emotional needs are forced to deal with human intimacy in a completely new way for him. His art became more sensitive when he tried to capture his wife’s changing moods: he showed her elegantly, thoughtful, reserved or irreconcilable. His portraits capture a rather cautious person with retrospective and melancholic expression.
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Jane Kallir, curator of the exhibition, Kallir Research Institute, New York City
Sensitive portraits and landscapes – Schiele’s life in the army
„Schiele’s new empathetic attitude also affected other motifs. In the course of various military services, he learned a lot in particular. In conversations with soldiers, superiors or prisoners of war, he learned about different fates and hopes. Its increased empathy is reflected in numerous soldiers and officer portraits, which were created from 1915; Until 1918, more than 40 such portraits have been known to date. The newly discovered realism made Schiele’s portraits for clients more attractive and he was able to increase his fame over time by painting prominent personalities.
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Kerstin Jesse, curator of the exhibition, Leopold Museum, Vienna
Schiele’s later landscapes also testify to a more naturalistic approach – in contrast to its early, often stylized landscape motifs with elements that appear anthropomorphic.
Success, late file and last works
In 1917 Schiele was able to return to Vienna and was determined to take on an artistic leadership role. A print -graphic folder with reproductions of drawings was soon sold out and the artist was asked to participate in the implementation of exhibitions. Schiele’s lines became more organic and less sudden, he showed his skills in thoughtful postures and prospective sophistication. While the bodies gained plasticity, the female depicted lost personality and mutated into generic types. Schiele began to design a cycle of allegorical representations, which was supposed to treat the great topics of earthly existence, death and resurrection and which he wanted to present in a mausoleum.
Shortly before his 28th birthday, the artist was at the height of his career and smithed plans for the revival of the Austrian art scene of the future post -war period. Edith, in the sixth month pregnant, and Egon Schiele died in October 1918 a few days in a row from the “Spanish flu”. They left the history of their marriage unfinished, as did Schiele’s artistic career.
For the exhibition, a catalog appeared in German and English in separate editions, with contributions by Sandra Dzialek, Kerstin Jesse, Jane Kallir and Hannes Leidinger as well as a prologue by Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Edith Schiel’s complete diary entries and a biography compiled by Simone Hönigl.
Curators: Kerstin Jesse, Jane Kallir
Link to detailed press documents and printable images
Opening ceremony
The invitation to the opening ceremony by Leopold Museum Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger accepted-in the presence of the Leopold Museum board members Josef Ostermayer, Saskia Leopold and Danielle Spera and the commercial director Moritz Stipsicz-around 1200 guests, including the curators of the exhibition, Kerstin Jesse and Jane Kallir with Gary Cosimini, Barbara Potisk-Eisensteiner (CFO Post AG), Harald Friedrich (board member LLB), entrepreneur Christian Knobloch (CKV Group), RA Andreas Huber, the collectors Karlheinz and Agnes Essl, Werner Gradisch-N-ride Egon Schieles-, Helmut Klewan, Ra Ernst Ploil (in Kinsky), Nikolaus Leopold (Leopold Fine Arts)) Waltraud Leopold, the gallery owners Susanne Bauer and Katharina Zetter-Karner, the art historians Stephanie Barron, Patrick Werkner and Thomas Zaunschule, author Waris Dirie, the Salon Leopold Committee member Catharina Knobloch and Jakob Jelinek, Karin-Bergmann-Blau, cultural manager Alexandra Arnim, Dorotheum expert Marianne Hussl-Hörmann, Josef Kirchberger, Veronika Kerres (chairwoman, Vinzi-Rast club), Belvedere curator Franz Smola, Barbara Kallir and Tom Shima, Nadine Kraus-Drasche (Dorotheum), the catalog authors Hannes Leidinger and Sandra Maria-Dzalek (Lenikus GmbH) and Alina Lenikus, Rainer Metzger (University of Karlsruhe), Vienna Museum Vice Director Ursula Storch, Cay Urbanek (Kaufm. GF Volkstheater), Marianne Kirstein-Jacobs, MQ Director Bettina Leidl, HGM Director Georg Hoffmann, Nikolaus Kratzer, curator Landesgalerie Lower Austria, artist Florian Reither (Gelitin), Dorotheum partner Martin Böhm, Sabine Folie (Director Academy of Fine Arts), Siwoung Song (World Culture Networks)) Soprano Maria Shebzukhova, lawyer William Stockler, Julia Zdrahal-Urbanek (Altopartners), former NR President Wolfgang Sobotka, Diplomat Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Chiara Galbusera (Collection curator OENB), notary Alexander Michalek, and much more
More pictures in the APATAH-FOTOGALERIE