Egon Schiele, Eros and Passion

This book is simply fantastic and Egon Schiele is absolutely one of my favorite artists!

As we continue to toil through terrors remembered from the last century, up pops this little tome that quite successfully takes us back to the early years of the last century when psychology and the study of the dark side of our minds exerted its now immutable influence on all of history. In this scholarly but immensely entertaining dissection of the seeds within Egon Schiele's mind that produced a prodigious, fascinating body of figurative painting in a short life time, author Schroder investigates sexuality, mores, mental hospitals and those who captured the inmates on film, photography, and the crumbling of empires. Lavishly illustrated with not only many relatively unknown Schiele works but also with works by Gertsl, Klimt, Degas, Courbet and scientific photographs of the twisted minds and bodies caged in sanitariums, this book reads well and allows us to absorb just how significant Schiele was in opening 20th century art to new levels of exploration. This is a fine addition to libraries of artists, students, collectors, physicians, psychologists...and anyone who enjoys visiting the fin de sicle - asurring us that what seems crude today was seen, perhaps more naievly, a whole century ago!

If in-your-face nudity is your cup of tea, then Egon Schiele is the one for you. He is the avatar of not only physical transparency; but also of emotional transparency. The uncoventional nude poses makes you a co-conspirator on a voyeuristic voyage, a voyage which you may embarrasingly enjoy or find distastefully provocative. The Prestel Verlag publication is translated from German. While it is priced for the budget conscious, its text is not so easily accessible. The text relies heavily on psycho-analytic jargon and analysis. For the uninitiated, it can prove to be quite a quagmire to wade through. So be forewarned. But if you are interested in Schiele's psyche then you will gobble this up. Schiele's works represented in this book is adequately comprehensive and a fitting catalogue of his repertoire. If you are a fan of Kent William's works (mostly comics related)then you would see some influences borrowed from Schiele, esp in his limited colour palette.