Paradigms are aspects of a person that make up who they are, here I will discuss the paradigms of Egon Schiele and how they affect how an audience might view his artwork.
- white Austrian.
Egon Schiele was born in Austria in 1890, making him a white man in a predominantly white country at the time. This explains to the viewers why his work shows mostly (if not only) white women and men.
2. convict.
Schiele was convicted and sent to prison for 24 days for “Public Immorality” in 1912, because the minors who hung out at his studio after school had allegedly been exposed to erotic works of art. This could change a viewer’s perspective of a nude piece, knowing that children were in that environment.
3. young male.
Egon Schiele being a young male could change the way one perceives his work because the main focus of his artwork is explicitly nude women but he also uses the subject to empower sexuality and femininity and not in a seductive idealised way.
4. Gustav Klimt’s apprentice.
In 1907 Gustav Klimt became Egon Schiele’s mentor, Klimt’s influence is noticeable around that time for a few years. In 1912 Schiele painted The Hermits, which was a self portrait with Klimt, as a homage to their friendship.
5. degenerate.
In 1933, when hitler was seizing European artwork that didn’t suit his taste of classic beauty, Egon Schiele’s work fell into the category and was labelled Degenerate Art. About 5,000 pieces of art were secretly burned in Berlin in 1939. This could change the viewers perspective of Schiele’s work as more independent and educational, because ironically, being given that label gave the work more weight in the long run.
Maya Julia Art 