Egon Schiele at Richard Nagy

Egon Schiele at Richard Nagy

19 May, 2011
by: Tom Jeffreys

Richard Nagy's long-awaited exhibition of works by Egon Schiele is exhibition of the year so far for Tom Jeffreys.

The big news in the London art world this week has been the opening of Tracey Emin's new survey show at the Hayward Gallery, but it shouldn't have been. It should have been the opening of this brilliant exhibition of drawings and small-scale paintings by Egon Schiele at Bond Street art gallery and dealer Richard Nagy.

Egon Schiele is one of the most prominent figures in the evolution of painting in the early part of the twentieth century. Based in Vienna from 1906 until 1918, where he died aged just 28, Schiele epitomises the era's sense of decadence, urban social struggle, near-obsessive self-exploration and seedy, grubby glamour. Young, poor, rebellious, buoyed by his own sense of genius and rummaging in the squalid depths of pre-war Vienna, Schiele is today notorious for various controversies involving accusations of paedophilia, pornography, abduction and seduction.

In some ways then there's some similarity between Schiele and Emin in the way that both mine the unseemly seams of their own existence. Both have been controversial, both explore confrontational topics with directness and honesty. But while Emin's art is, frankly, artless, Schiele goes way beyond mere shock-factor documentation to, I hesitate to say something higher, but at least something more. For me, great art rewards extended and repeated viewing, and his art is certainly great.

On display are more than 45 works, many from private collections and none which have previously been exhibited in public in the UK. There's a forcefulness and powerful directness here that is immediately evident – writhing limbs, legs spread provocatively, the artist's own rosily erect phallus. It's an uncompromising vision, but one that's given its real force by the artist's deft mastery of colour and economy of line; his neat summations of character and form that give notice of an extraordinary technical ability.

Deftly Schiele evokes his subjects. Seated Girl with Pigtails is a coyly painted face, delicate and pointy, but with strange, twisted arms, turning almost into bark or grey, putrid claws. In Kneeling Blonde Nude, a double outline captures heft and movement – that strange malnourished combination of scrawn and flab. Likewise, the skinny torso and oddly melting hips of Dark Haired Girl Undressing – a superbly minimal portrait. Elsewhere, there's the graceful slumber of Sleeping Girl; the distant and stately superiority of Gerti Schiele in Orange Hat; and the wiry, slowly whirling eroticism of Gerti Schiele in Large Hat. Gerti was Schiele's sister.

Yes, these are highly sexualised works – in several you can almost hear the frantic rustle of petticoats pushed hastily aside – but there's more. These are works that centre on a powerful exploration of ambiguity and, one might just as well say, an ambiguous exploration of power. Seated Nude with Violet Stockings is an exquisitely enigmatic example of this, as is Woman Removing Green Stocking. Is this girl simply taking of her sock? Or has the artist/viewer ordered her to? Her expression – at once arrogant and beguiling – suggests the latter. The depths of apparent hatred in the rich, round brown eyes speak of a reluctance to obey, a repressed desire for rebellion. But nevertheless here she is, eyed up and leered over since 1914.

In a similar if contrasting way, there's something funny about Schiele's preeningly self-obsessed self-portraits. Clearly he sees himself as a genius – intense, charismatic, troubled, smouldering. But it's futile – he is a genius, albeit a limited one, but it's the work that makes this point not the artist's public self-fashioning.

There's two lessons to be learnt here, I think. The first is the way Schiele gives a masterclass in making quite electrifying material out his own strange, ragged existence. He does far more than Emin's simplistic documentation; he conjures and enthrals. And the second is that you don't have to pay the entry fees of the big London institutions to see something special; sometimes even commercial Mayfair dealers put on brilliant shows. And this is certainly brilliant – my exhibition of the year so far, by far.


Egon Schiele - Women is at Richard Nagy until 30th June 2011.

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Images courtesy Richard Nagy.

Tom Jeffreys