5th Egon Schiele Symposium at the Leopold Museum “Networks and Friendships”

15.11.2023

The 2023 Egon Schiele Symposium highlighted the significance of the Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele’s (1890-1918) networks and friendships with lectures by Philipp Blom, Régine Bonnefoit, Tobias Burg, Ulrike Emberger, Laura Feurle, Simone Hönigl, Kerstin Jesse, Alexander Klee and Alexandra Matzner.

On 9th November 2023, the Leopold Museum’s Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger and curator Kerstin Jesse hosted the 5th Egon Schiele Symposium at the museum’s auditorium. This year’s event focused on Schiele’s “Networks and Friendships”.

“Egon Schiele has become such a household name that it is a downright necessity to keep shedding new light on his art, and to view his oeuvre from unusual angles. Since 2016, the Leopold Museum has been organizing symposia with international speakers who approach the artist’s work from various perspectives.”

Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Director of the Leopold Museum

The 2023 Schiele Symposium’s emphasis was on Egon Schiele’s friendships with fellow artists. The speakers addressed select aspects in connection with Schiele’s companions Albert Paris Gütersloh, Felix Albrecht Harta, Max Oppenheimer and Oskar Kokoschka.

In his keynote speech on the theme of Vienna 1914 — Bodies, Facades, Identities, the historian and bestselling author Philipp Blom illustrated the relationship of tension between form and functionality in the art of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. That the intellectual and artistic avant-garde of Vienna around 1900 was fascinated with overcoming the disparity between form and functionality became apparent not only in the fine arts but also in applied arts, for instance in the stringent geometry of designs of the Wiener Werkstätte. The search for solutions in this field of tension also manifested in architecture, for instance with Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos, in literature, with Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, in music in the compositions of Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg, in the philosophy of Ernst Mach and the Vienna Circle, as well as in psychoanalysis and language criticism. Egon Schiele’s architectural bodies and anthropomorphic buildings were not only an expression of this criticism of form through the act of seeing, but also a way of taking it further.

“Egon Schiele’s portraits, studies of bodies and landscapes were often determined by his keen interest in pure form, and by an almost abstract basic gesture which intensified forms and figures in an archetypal manner. The connection with the stylized spaces of his mentor Gustav Klimt is evident and appears in the context of the Secessionists’ rebellion against academic art.”

Philipp Blom, writer and historian

In his lecture “I regret that you have to work under such difficult conditions.” Karl-Ernst Osthaus as Egon Schiele’s Early Collector, the art historian Tobias Burg explored the close contact between the eminent patron Karl Ernst Osthaus (1874–1921) and Egon Schiele. Osthaus, the founder of the Museum Folkwang in Hagen, started to collect Schiele’s works as early as 1910, and their correspondence did not cease until Schiele’s untimely death in 1918. Between 1910 and 1918, the patron of the arts acquired a considerable number of Schiele works, including the painting The Small City I (Dead City VI) and 14 watercolors. Burg talked about the extensive correspondence between Schiele and Osthaus, which features repeated references to Schiele’s financial difficulties, and attempted to reconstruct Karl Ernst Osthaus’s Schiele collection as far as possible through historical documents.

The art historian Alexandra Matzner dedicated her presentation United in “Distinctness” – Gütersloh and Schiele to Egon Schiele’s friendship with his fellow artist Albert Paris Gütersloh (1887–1973). The artists’ connection lasted almost ten years and was shaped by mutual respect. Gütersloh’s double talent – he was a writer as well as a visual artist – made him an important protagonist of the Neukunst-Gruppe. Despite the “distinctness” of their artistic practices, the two friends worked closely together on exhibition projects and within artists’ associations. Based on Gütersloh’s commentaries and manuscripts, as well as on biographical sources and press reports, Matzner retraced the public debate and focused on one of Schiele’s last large-scale portraits: that of his colleague Albert Paris Gütersloh, created in 1918, which is kept today at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

“Shadow Boxing” with a Deceased – Kokoschka’s (Non-)Relationship with Schiele was the heading of the lecture given by art historian and curator Régine Bonnefoit. Throughout his lifetime, Oskar Kokoschka refused to be compared with Egon Schiele, and did not refer to him at all in his autobiography. The mere mention of his name in the context of Schiele’s provoked his anger, which after 1945 escalated into defamatory statements and accusations of plagiarism. Seeing as Schiele had been dead almost three decades by this point, Kokoschka’s territorial fights have been likened to shadow boxing in research. In a letter to his biographer written in 1963, Kokoschka insisted that he had never met “the fellow”. He resented the prominent art dealer Otto Nirenstein for putting on Schiele exhibitions in Vienna and New York. In her deliberations, Bonnefoit shone the spotlight on several previously disregarded overlaps in the lives of the two artists, which make their (non-)relationship appear like an improbable legend, interpreting Kokoschka’s Schiele defamation as a strategy of biographical self-representation.

The Leopold Museum’s curator Kerstin Jesse dedicated her symposium contribution, titled Max Oppenheimer, called MOPP: Egon Schiele’s Friend and Rival, to one of Schiele’s early companions. The extrovert artist, who was five years Schiele’s senior, met the 19-year-old Schiele around 1909. The friends at times shared their models and a studio, and were soon carried away by an inexorable urge to find, sound out and evolve their artistic expression. In this, they were propelled by their extraordinary talent and irrepressible drive to create something new.                    

“Hardened traditions, such as were maintained at the Vienna Academy, and representations with toned-down expression geared towards preserving the veneer, were abhorrent to Oppenheimer and Schiele. Instead, their works and their understanding of themselves as ‘Neukünstler’ [new artists] promoted expressiveness, a love of experimentation, the courage to portray ugliness, and a questioning of their own identities and that of the individual.”

Kerstin Jesse, curator, Leopold Museum

Looking more closely at Oppenheimer and Schiele’s relationship and their artworks, Jesse highlighted the two artists’ communalities and differences. In 1910, Schiele arrived at his unmistakable stroke and style, which he evolved with unbelievable speed. Oppenheimer who – in contrast to Schiele’s focus on graphic works – dedicated himself primarily to painting and, along with portraits, favored multi-figure depictions, derived inspiration from his younger colleague’s grotesque hand gestures and body postures. The two artists’ network included leading representatives of Vienna’s art scene, among them Gustav Klimt, the art critic Arthur Roessler and the collector Oskar Reichel. Following Oppenheimer’s move to Berlin in the winter of 1911/12, the contact between them diminished but never ceased completely. World War I and Schiele’s untimely death in 1918 prevented the friends’ personal reunion.

Simone Hönigl, whose role at the Leopold Museum’s Egon Schiele Documentation Center is to research the artist’s autographs, talked about the friendship between Schiele und Felix Albrecht Harta (1884–1967) in her lecture “In the afternoon, we visited Harta” – Egon Schiele and Felix Albrecht Harta. “The two artists met already in 1909 in Vienna, when the 19-year-old Schiele, upon leaving the Academy, co-founded the artists’ association Neukunstgruppe. At the time, Harta, who was six years older and widely traveled, had just returned to Vienna following a stay in Spain. In 1913, both artists featured with their works in the 43rd Exhibition of the Vienna Secession, as well as in the presentation of Austrian artists Bund Österreichischer Künstler és Gustav Klimt gyüjteményes kiállitása in Budapest. In the Internationale Schwarz-Weiß Ausstellung [black-and-white exhibition] in Vienna, Schiele’s drawings were shown next to those of Harta, who further acted as a member of the exhibition’s jury. In 1913, Schiele created a series of nudes modeled on Harta. The artists portrayed one another, published their drawings in the same periodicals and moved in joint circles, which further included Albert Paris Gütersloh, Johannes Fischer and Anton Faistauer.

As Alexander Klee elucidated in his contribution Egon Schiele and Adolf Hölzel. Networking in Times of War, the artist Adolf Hölzel (1853–1934) and Egon Schiele probably never met, but had numerous points of contact via joint companions. Hölzel, who co-founded the Vienna and Munich Secession, was the son of Eduard Hölzel – the founder of a publishing house – and co-organized many international exhibitions, had a far-reaching international network. His circle overlapped with Schiele’s, for instance, with regards the art critic Arthur Roessler. Further common acquaintances included Hölzel’s nephew, the publisher Eduard Kosmack, who was portrayed by Schiele, as well as Hölzel’s close friend Carl Moll. A co-founder of the Vienna Secession, who from 1904 to 1912 acted as head of Galerie Miethke, Moll – like Gustav Klimt – was a promoter of young talents, including Kokoschka, Schiele and Kolig.

In her lecture Thinking Hands? On the Theory of the Artistic Practice of Vienna’s “Neukunst”, Laura Feurle explored the art production of Viennese Modernism. The reform movement at art schools, for instance at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, resulted in the development and implementation of performative teaching and learning concepts. Select self-portraits by artists including Egon Schiele show subtle references to deliberations about the role and importance of the artist’s hand and craftsmanship. These different positions and perspectives ultimately gave rise to a contemporary concept of the nature of art production. Rather than being rooted in the materialization in the artwork of a preconceived idea, which was now considered to be of subordinate importance, this concept emphasized the performative, whole-body aspect of the poietic act, which links seeing, thinking and the manual operation of tools. Thus, this theory of the practice in Viennese “Neukunst” [new art] (Ludwig Hevesi) turned out to be an update of the topos of the “thinking hand”.

Ulrike Emberger explored the effects of export restrictions on the Schiele art market in her presentation Protected! Saved! Released! Egon Schiele and Monument Protection. Since 1st January 2000, all cultural goods which are not cleared for export in Austria owing to their artistic, historic or cultural importance must be placed under monument protection. The authority in charge of this is the Federal Monuments Office Vienna, primarily the Department of Movable Monuments – International Transfer of Cultural Property. Oil paintings by Egon Schiele are rarely offered on the art market today, while drawings, printed graphic works and watercolors are traded very often. Emberger used concrete examples to give insights into the examination procedures carried out by the Department of Moveable Monuments, and explained what kind of works are really prevented from leaving Austria. The largest part of protected works by Egon Schiele is housed by Austrian museums. According to the regulations of the Austrian Heritage Protection Law, (almost) all works in public and ecclesiastical (religious) collections are ex lege protected monuments.

The speakers:

Philipp Blom studied philosophy, history and Jewish studies in Vienna and Oxford. His life and work has taken him to London, Paris, Los Angeles and Vienna, where he lives today. Philipp Blom is the author of numerous historical and philosophical works, among them The Vertigo Years (2009), A Wicked Company (2011) and Nature’s Mutiny (2017). His books have been translated into 14 languages. Along with his work as a writer, Blom presents the Ö1 radio program Punkt Eins, and is an internationally sought-after speaker, discussant and lecturer.

Tobias Burg studied art history, history and Slavic studies in Trier and Dresden, and earned his doctorate in 2003 with a dissertation on the history of artist’s signatures. Since 2007, he has worked as curator of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Museum Folkwang. Along with solo exhibitions on artists including Jim Dine, Federico Fellini, Joan Mitchell and Nancy Spero, he has also curated themed exhibitions, most recently Expressionists at Folkwang and Chagall, Matisse, Miró. Made in Paris. In 2021, he published the catalogue raisonné of Jim Dine’s prints from 2001–2020.

Alexandra Matzner studied art history, history and Romance studies in Vienna and Rome. She works as a freelance author and curator in Vienna, and is the founder and editor-in-chief of the e-journal ART IN WORDS (https://artinwords.de). Alexandra Matzner curated the exhibition Arik Brauer – Gesamt.Kunst.Werk (2014) for the Leopold Museum, and acted as research assistant to the museum’s presentation Hundertwasser – Schiele (2020). Her research emphasis is on Viennese Modernism, specifically on women artists and printed graphic works, as well as the Art for All movement.

Régine Bonnefoit has worked as professor of contemporary art history and museum studies at the University of Neuchâtel (CH) since 2008. She wrote her doctoral thesis on Paul Klee’s Theory of Lines, and has published and written numerous publications on Klee, the Bauhaus, the Russian avant-garde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Oskar Kokoschka and Viennese Modernism. Bonnefoit has co-curated many exhibitions in Europe and the US, including Friedrich Dürrenmatt – Caricatures, Kurpfälzisches Museum Heidelberg / Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel (2020–2022) and Number, Rhythm, Change – Emma Kunz and Contemporary Art, Kunsthalle Ziegelhütte Appenzell (2020).

Kerstin Jesse studied art history at Vienna University, at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and at Freie Universität Berlin. From 2008, she worked as assistant curator, and from 2016 as curator for 20th-century art at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, where she was in charge of Egon Schiele agendas and curator of the exhibition Egon Schiele. The Making of a Collection (2018). Since 2023, she has worked as a curator at the Leopold Museum. Her activities include lectures and jury memberships, publications, exhibition and research projects, as well as catalogues raisonnés. Her emphasis is on art of the European avant-garde after 1900, and on European and American art from the fin-de-siècle into the 1960s.

Simone Hönigl studied art history at Vienna University. From 2016–17 she worked for the Ernst Fuchs Museum at the Otto Wagner Villa, where her tasks included the digitalization of the artist’s estate. In 2019, she joined the team of the Leopold Museum as a research assistant at the museum’s Egon Schiele Documentation Center, and since 2023 has worked there as a research associate with an emphasis on project management and the restructuring of the Egon Schiele Autograph Database.

Alexander Klee is a curator specializing in art of the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. He is a founding member of the Adolf Hölzel-Stiftung in Stuttgart, and is currently compiling Hölzel’s complete works. His research emphasis is on art of the 19th and 20th centuries, as illustrated by numerous monographic exhibitions and publications on Adolf Hölzel, Georg Karl Pfahler, Emil Jakob Schindler, Hans Makart, Franz von Stuck, Elena Luksch-Makowsky, Max Oppenheimer and Lovis Corinth, as well as by themed exhibitions, including Vienna–Berlin. The Art of Two Cities in cooperation with the Berlinische Galerie (2014), Cubism – Constructivism – Form Art (2016) and Klimt Is Not the End. Awakening in Central Europe in Vienna and Brussels (2018/19).

Laura Feurle studied literary, art and media sciences at the University of Konstanz with a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes [German Academic Scholarship Foundation]. Since 2020, she has worked as a research associate and doctoral candidate of art sciences under Prof. Karin Leonhard at the University of Konstanz. In 2021, she received the University of Konstanz Award for Teaching Excellence (LUKS). Her research emphases are on the production esthetics and art theory of Viennese Modernism, as well as on portrait and nude painting from a post-colonial and gender-critical perspective.

Ulrike Emberger studied art history and Romance studies at Salzburg University, and wrote her doctoral thesis on the theme of “Light and Color in the Paintings of the Macchiaioli”. Since 1986, she has worked as a consultant for the Federal Monuments Office Vienna, Department of Movable Monuments – International Transfer of Cultural Property; acting from 2001–2016 as deputy head, and from 2017–2023 as head of the department. Her tasks include processing export requests, drawing up expert opinions about artworks needing to be placed under protection, as well as appraising artworks and cultural goods in the context of auctions, deaccessions and the restitution of illegally exported cultural property. Her activities include lectures and publications on the protection and conservation of moveable cultural assets.

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Special offer on conference volumes on previous symposia: Between 9th and 23rd November 2023, the Leopold Museum Shop offers 30% off when buying 2 or more conference volumes on the Egon Schiele Symposia nos. 2-4.

Previously published conference volumes:

1st Egon Schiele Symposium at the Leopold Museum

Conference Volume on the 1st Egon Schiele Symposium at the Leopold Museum

29th and 30th September 2016, Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, 2017

Editor: Hans-Peter Wipplinger

Authors: Bazon Brock, Carla Carmona Escalera, Ralph Gleis, Matthias Haldemann, Allan Janik, Stefan Kutzenberger, Elisabeth Leopold, Sonja Niederacher, Franz Smola

152 pages, 66 illustrations, out of print!

Egon Schiele. Expression and Lyric

Conference Volume on the 2nd Egon Schiele Symposium at the Leopold Museum

9th and 10th September 2017, Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, 2018

Editors: Verena Gamper, Hans-Peter Wipplinger

Authors: Daniela Finzi, Verena Gamper, Kerstin Jesse, Jane Kallir, Pamela Kort, Diethard Leopold, Elisabeth Leopold, Rainer Metzger, Helena Pereña, Franz Smola, Eva Werth, Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Norbert Christian Wolf

228 pages, 146 illustrations, EUR 14.90, available at the Leopold Museum Shop

Egon Schiele. Dialogue and Staging

Conference Volume on the 3rd Egon Schiele Symposium at the Leopold Museum

10th November 2019, Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, 2020

Editors: Verena Gamper, Hans-Peter Wipplinger

Authors: Gemma Blackshaw, Agathe Boruszczak, Sandra Maria Dzialek, Verena Gamper, Stefanie Jahn, Eric Kandel, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Patrick Werkner, Hans-Peter Wipplinger

144 pages, 108 illustrations, EUR 14.90, available at the Leopold Museum Shop

 

Egon Schiele. Milieus and Perspectives

Conference Volume on the 4th Egon Schiele Symposium at the Leopold Museum

3rd December 2021, Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, 2022

Editors: Verena Gamper, Hans-Peter Wipplinger

Authors: Christian Bauer, Gemma Blackshaw, Elisabeth Dutz, Sandra Maria Dzialek, Verena Gamper, Adam Kaasa, Jane Kallir, Elisabeth Leopold, Karin Maierhofer, Franz Smola, Sandra Tretter, Hans-Peter Wipplinger

176 pages, 140 illustrations, EUR 14.90, available at the Leopold Museum Shop

 

Further information on the 5th Egon Schiele Symposium 2023

Further images in the APA-Fotogalerie

Queries & contact:

Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung
Mag. Klaus Pokorny and Veronika Werkner, BA
Press/Public Relations
0043 1 525 70 - 1507 and 1541
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