CHANGING TIMES
EGON SCHIELE’S LAST YEARS: 1914–1918

Editor: Kerstin Jesse, Jane Kallir, Hans-Peter Wipplinger

Authors: Sandra Dzialek, Kerstin Jesse, Jane Kallir, Hannes Leidinger, Edith Schiele, Hans-Peter Wipplinger; Biography: compiled by Simone Hönigl

This spring, the Leopold Museum is dedicating a large-scale monographic exhibition to the central artist of the Leopold Collection, Egon Schiele (1890–1918). Changing Times. Egon Schiele’s Last Years: 1914–1918 is the first presentation to shine the spotlight on the artist’s late oeuvre. The eccentric exceptional artist only had around ten years of activity before he died at the age of 28 from the “Spanish Flu”. Throughout this decade, Schiele created a comprehensive oeuvre, which is best known for his key paintings and the drawings he realized between 1910 and 1913, in which he addressed his own mental states as well as the self-questioning and inner conflicts of an entire generation. From 1914, right in the middle of his professional career, Schiele faced dramatic changes both of a private and historical nature, which he was forced to adapt to and which impacted on his oeuvre. His previous introspection gave way to a new focus on external realities and novel themes, altering his artistic style.