October 3, 2018–January 14, 2019
A solo exhibition of work by 19th century Austrian painter Egon Schiele will be on view on the first floor of the Fondation Louis Vuitton. The first exhibition in Paris dedicated to the artist in 25 years, Egon Schiele will feature approximately 120 works—drawings, gouaches, and paintings—including masterpieces such as
Self-Portrait with a Chinese Lantern Plant (1912, Leopold Museum, Vienna),
Pregnant Woman and Death (1911, Národní Galerie, Prague),
Portrait of the Artist’s Wife Seated, Holding Her Right Leg (1917, Morgan Library & Museum, New York),
Standing Nude with Blue Sheet (1914, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg),
Seated Male Nude (1910, Neue Galerie, New York),
and Self-Portrait (1912, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).
The exhibition brings together some 120 works - drawings, gouaches, and paintings - over more than 600m2, in the pool-level galleries (Gallery 1). It is organised chronologically across four rooms, following the concept of line and its development in the artist’s work. Dieter Buchhart explains his choice in this way: “Very few artists have approached line and drawing with the same virtuosity and intensity as Schiele. [...] By evolving from the ornamental line towards the expressionist line, combined, in three dimensions, fragmented and amputated, he enabled a borderline dissonant and divergent experience of the line as a sign of human existence.”
The exhibition’s four chapters are entitled:
The Ornamental Line (1908-1909) ; The Existential Line of Expressionism (1910-1911), The Physical Balance of the Combined Line at the Dawn of the First World War (1912-1914), and The Amputated, Fragmented Line during the War Years (1915-1918).
- The Ornamental Line brings together works inspired by the jugendstil, full of fluidity,which makes reference to the discovery of the work of Gustav Klimt, who played a major role in his development.
- The Existential Line of Expressionism is indissociable from the artist’s most expressionist works and his angular and contorted portraits and self-portraits, which are sensual and vibrant, enlivened by touches of pure colour.
- The Physical Balance of the Combined Line at the Dawn of the First World War, from the years before the first global conflict, convey the premonitory fear of war. This group of work is contemporary to, or immediately followed, the artist’s brief period of imprisonment in 1912 in Neulenbach, following accusations of indecency. It is characterised by a less sinuous line and a flatness of drawing which partially frees itself from the former dissonance.
- The Amputated, Fragmented Line during the War Years denotes a significant change: the introduction of formation in the representations of the body. The bodily postures are also more familiar, less aggressive.
Egon Schiele. Self-Portrait with Peacock Waistcoat, 1911. Gouache, watercolor, and black crayon on paper, mounted on cardboard. 51.5 x 34.5 cm. Collection of Ernst Ploil, Vienna.
Egon Schiele is organized by the Fondation Louis Vuitton and is curated by Artistic Director Suzanne Pagé and independent curator Dieter Buchhart.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by Buchhart and Pagé, as well as distinguished scholars and curators including Jean Clair, Alessandra Comini and Jane Kallir.
