Egon Schiele

Something struck me the first time I saw an Egon Schiele painting, his touch about and around death led me to believe he was familiar with the other side. I expected from his paintings that he was witness,etudiante du mort, perhaps even victim to visions of death. My readings prove none of this.

Given the course of current world affairs we should take pause and review his paintings about death. In them you can find on the hand much suffering and immediately on the other such lucid strokes that death appears merely a state. There are no indications in his paintings that death is an end. It evokes transitory spaces, space between spaces. There is an absolute weight in his zero space that is measured for us in terms of tone, balance, saturation points and pressure. His paintings place an immeasurable weight upon ones psyche. To which one struggles to understand, most likely until death.

Some of his most impressive paintings are;
Autumn Trees 1911
Self portrait with outstretched arms
Four Trees

Given the course of current world affairs we should take pause and review his paintings about death and war. In them one can find on the one hand, suffering and immediately on the other, such lucid strokes that death appears as merely a state. There are no indicators in his paintings that death is an end, it evokes image of transitory space, space in between spaces. There is an absolute weight in his zero space that is measured for us in terms of tone, balance, saturation and pressure. His paintings place an immeasurable weight upon our psyche, a weight that might only be understood in that transitory space.