art 515 writing seminar

Lilita Krys 10/11/2011

Influence #3

Viennese expressionist Egon Schiele has been a commanding influence in my work. In his paintings and drawings Schiele draws attention to human psyche, through expressive poses, angularity, anxious lines, and a limited color palette. Nude self-portraits and portraits are indicative to the artist"s own sexual perversity – exhibitionism and voyeurism.

My main interests in Schiele’s work are his superior draftsmanship, expressive quality of the poses, and that of the color, and creation of space without using any actual surrounding. In his

Seated Nude Male, (See Figure 1: Seated Nude Male, by Egon Schiele) a man is seated by means of his curvature into a suggested space. Through bent knees, perspective of femurs, and the leaning of his upper body, Schiele constructs a third dimension. In my paintings I eliminate most of the surroundings in favor of expression of the body (See Figure 2: Reclining). Unlike Schiele’s work, my painting has shadow which is used to suggest the space, and chair. An agitation and angularity in the Seated Man, is reversed into lifelessness in the Reclining, yet both of them are traumatized by the space, loosing their body parts.

In another painting (See Figure 3: Reclining Woman with Legs Apart, by Egon Schiele), a half-naked woman is displaying the intimate parts of her body. The painting’s composition and sexual tonality is echoed in my Floating III (See Figure 4: Floating III). Open legs and a shallow angular perspective are seducing a viewer to step into a very intimate personal space. In Shiele’s it is a voyeuristic experience for a male (presumably). My work is a view at other people’s expressive body qualities (in this instance, a couple), layered over my intuitive psychological responses to them, and a creation of my personal symbolic language in painting.

A portrait of a couple (See Figure 5: Embrace (Egon and Edith Schiele, by Egon Sciele), is a visually dynamic portrait of a relationship. In a Couple I (See Figure 6: Couple I) the poses are more static, where intensity of Shiele’s Embrace strives to show through an awkward head stand of the woman supported from falling by the male’s penis and his head.

In all Shiele’s works, a limited color palette is an important instrument for expressiveness. All combination are used to reflect a certain quality of the subject’s state of mind, rather then a realistic representation of skin or clothes. This aspect of his work is burgeoning in my mind, and as it will form into my own symbolic language, a new body of work will be communicated.

List of Figures:

Figure 1