EGON SCHIELE

 Post -250

SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

Egon Schiele (1890-1918), was one of the most prolific Austrian artists, who in a short life of 28 years, produced more than 3000 works. Schiele from young age was fond of drawing trains from his station master father’s house. At the age of 16, he moved to Vienna to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. Here, Gustav Klimt who had formed the Vienna Secession, became his mentor. Schiele, remained close friends but moved away from Klimt’s ‘ornate Art Nouveau and developed own Expressionist style. This was a stark, raw and deeply emotional expression drawn with a darker palette.

By the early 1910s, Schiele’s work was full of an obsessive exploration of the human body, including taboo subjects far beyond conventional eroticism. His works have been called grotesque, erotic, pornographic, or disturbing, sex-centric, but there is a sense of playfulness due to the caricatural distortions.

His works, landscapes or human figures, all emerge from his realistic sketching with bold outlines and definitive contours, where colours only add to the magic. The forms stand by themselves and do not rely on contrast, colour or background. 

OSKAR MOLL

 

Post -249 

.

SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

. 

Oskar Moll (1875-1947) was a German Fauvist ʘ painter. He was a self taught artist, but later, as student had training, with Lovis Corinth, Walter Leistikow and Henri Matisse. He went to Paris in 1907, here, he became a founder of the ‘Académie Matisse in 1908'. In 1914, he became a member of the 'Free Secession in Berlin'. He became a professor at the Academy of Arts and Crafts, and its Director, until 1932. He then taught at the Dusseldorf Art Academy.

Moll is known for his landscapes, portraits and abstract compositions. His abstract compositions were geometric and with vivid and contrasting colours. He blended Impressionism and Cubism. The influence of Cubism is attributed to his sculptor and painter wife, Marg (Margarethe Haeffner).

Nazi government consistently persecuted him, by prohibiting his exhibition of Art works, and defaming as a 'degenerate artist'. Due to Nazi harassment, Moll turned to painting nudes to supplement the landscapes and still-lifes.

ʘ Fauvism, a short-lived art-style that flourished mainly in France, beginning of the 20^th C. The artist used pure, brilliant colours, straight from the tubes, to create a sense of an explosion on the canvas. Fauvist painted directly from nature, like the Impressionists (before them).

.

FRANCESCO GUARDI

 Post -248

SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah 

.

Francesco Guardi, was an Italian painter from Venice (1712-1793), famous for his views of Venice. He became, as famous as Canaletto of the 18 C. Over the eighty years of life, he has produced a great variety of atmospheric landscapes. In earlier years, he worked with his brother Gian Antonio to produce religious themes.

Guardi created landscapes and figure compositions, but became famous for architectural fantasies or capriccio, where he mixed styles, colour pallette, eras and monuments. Guardi's art style is known as pittura di tocco (of touch) for its small dots and brush-strokes, like the Venetian school of painting. 

.