Full Transcript
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLHZZmTXhPM
[00:00] There are many images I could not use making this video.
[00:04] You can find the full uncensored adult version on my Patreon link in the description below.
[00:15] [Music]
[00:24] Egon Sheila was one of the most intense and controversial artists of the early 20th century.
[00:32] A shy, reserved child turned rebellious visionary.
[00:35] He scandalized Vienna with raw, often unsettling depictions of the human body.
[00:40] His work is filled with twisted forms and existential angst reflecting an obsession with mortality, sexuality, and identity, especially his own.
[00:52] His self-portraits are unlike anything that came before them.
[00:58] Emaciated, contorted, and confrontational.
[00:58] With sunken eyes
[01:01] and confrontational.
[01:02] With sunken eyes and twisted limbs, they were not intended to flatter, but to disturb.
[01:06] So, what drove this young artist to depict himself so mercilessly?
[01:11] In this film, we'll explore how Sheila's extraordinary self-portraits reflect not just his own inner world, but the last throws of empire, a fascination with medical patients, the artistic ferment of Fanderla Vienna, including the influence of Gustav Climpmpt, and even the unlikely effect of Javanese puppet theater on his work.
[01:38] And we'll ask, why do these haunting images still grip us over a century later?
[02:00] As a child, Egon Sheila watched his
[02:03] As a child, Egon Sheila watched his father, Adolf, slowly disintegrate as hallucinations and seizures took hold of him.
[02:08] His body jerking convulsively into contorted shapes.
[02:11] It would have a profound effect on the young Sheila.
[02:16] Born in 1890 in the small Austrian town of Tul just outside Vienna.
[02:19] His childhood was shaped by three things: trains, an early obsession with drawing, and the long shadow cast by his father's health.
[02:25] Sheila's father, his grandfather, even his older sister worked on the trains, and it was assumed Egon would follow the same path.
[02:33] As a child, he spent hours sketching locomotives with incredible detail.
[02:41] But it wasn't so much the trains that drove his fascination.
[02:46] It was drawing itself.
[02:48] The act of making images quickly became a refuge and an obsession.
[02:55] His father's humiliating mental and physical decline was due to the neurological effects of
[03:03] was due to the neurological effects of latestage syphilis, a disease he had contracted from a prostitute on the night of his wedding.
[03:11] He would die when Egon was just 14.
[03:15] While Sheila never directly painted his father's death, it haunted his subjects.
[03:21] The frail body, the thin line between beauty and suffering, and the inescapable presence of death in life.
[03:28] The shame of his father's illness almost certainly contributed to Sheila's complicated attitudes towards sexuality.
[03:36] His work often connects eroticism and suffering and there is a persistent undercurrent of desire, danger and transgression in his work.
[03:48] For Sheila, the loss of his father was devastating, and he retreated further into drawing and painting and even began to use his own self as a subject, as if he were trying to catch something hidden just beneath his own skin.
[04:01] This remarkable photograph of him as a
[04:03] This remarkable photograph of him as a teenage boy shows us the intense psychological world he was already constructing around his image.
[04:11] It seems as if it's a visual rehearsal for the role he would play in his paintings, as if he was sculpting a persona.
[04:20] Sheila was a boy shaped early on by death, intensity, and inward obsession.
[04:26] traits that would define both his art and his short haunted life.
[04:35] At just 16, Sheila was accepted into the prestigious Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
[04:41] And at 17, he sought out and met his idol, Gustav Climpmpt, who already established and 28 years older would become his mentor.
[04:52] This early drawing by Sheila records their meeting.
[04:55] As we shall see, elements of Climpmp's style can be found in many of Sheila's early works and drawings.
[05:03] In 1911, when Sheila was 21, Climpmpt introduced him to
[05:06] was 21, Climpmpt introduced him to 17-year-old Voli Noisel, a workingclass model.
[05:12] The two quickly became inseparable.
[05:15] Voli was both his partner and muse, posing for many of his most intimate and expressive works, and she became an essential part of the emotional and aesthetic core of Sheila's most radical work.
[05:28] What is most striking about her portraits is the look in her eyes.
[05:33] Volley's direct gaze showed her to be comfortable with herself and her sexuality as she looks calmly and intimately at Sheila.
[05:42] This is one of the most famous paintings of Voli, showing her with unscentimental honesty, staring directly at the viewer.
[05:50] It was painted as a counterpoint to Sheila's own self-portrait of the same year, one of his most celebrated works.
[05:57] Both of them are confident, even defiant.
[06:00] But the paintings also reveal something fragile beneath the surface.
[06:06] The two paintings are a powerful pair and a statement of
[06:08] are a powerful pair and a statement of their bond and a relationship that would last four years.
[06:11] That was until he abruptly ended it to marry Edith Harms, a bourgeoa woman he considered more respectable.
[06:14] His many portraits of his wife were altogether more modest than Sheila's usual depiction of women.
[06:17] He asked Voli to stay on as his mistress, but she refused.
[06:20] In response to the end of their relationship, Sheila created one of his greatest paintings, which anyone who has been through the end of a love affair can connect with.
[06:22] They never saw each other again.
[06:25] When an artist is making a self-portrait, they are looking into a mirror asking, "Who am I?"
[06:28] Over his short lifetime, Sheila would go on to produce at least 170 self-portraits.
[06:31] And while many external influences and other artists shaped Sheila's work, it is
[07:09] artists shaped Sheila's work, it is significant that he and Sigman Freud were working in Vienna at the same time.
[07:15] Sheila's art emerged from the same cultural and intellectual climate that produced Freud psychoanalysis, an era defined by a deep fascination with self-examination.
[07:28] Sheila's self-portraits can almost be read as Freudian case histories in visual form.
[07:35] They strip away social masks, expose taboo desires, and make the unconscious visible in the body.
[07:42] His close friend and mentor Gustav Climpmpt didn't paint any works that he called self-portraits.
[07:48] So why did Sheila paint so many?
[07:50] And what makes them so different from those of his predecessors?
[07:54] One of the central reasons artists create self-portraits is to explore questions of identity and status.
[08:02] Many artists use self-portraits to elevate their social standing.
[08:06] In the Renaissance, Alrechdura famously painted
[08:09] Renaissance, Alrechdura famously painted himself in the image of Christ, raising himself in the image of Christ, raising the status of the artist to something approaching the divine and art saw a rise of self-portraits included in commissions.
[08:22] Another comment on the artist status in society.
[08:25] Then there's the technical aspect.
[08:27] Repeatedly observing the same face allows for artistic experimentation and refinement.
[08:32] For others, it was about legacy.
[08:35] Painted in 1780, Sir Joshua Reynolds self-portrait is a deliberate nod to Rembrandt, a calculated exercise in personal branding.
[08:45] Artameeseia Gentileleski, meanwhile, painted herself as the embodiment of painting, boldly asserting her place in an art world that barely acknowledged women.
[08:55] But while this self-portrait by Vincent Van Go is looking for our empathy or our understanding, this self-portrait by Sheila demands you face something raw and uncomfortable.
[09:05] It is a challenge.
[09:09] Sheila doesn't seem interested in
[09:11] Sheila doesn't seem interested in sympathy, status, or legacy.
[09:14] Some have suggested it is down to narcissism.
[09:17] A fair point.
[09:20] His letters to his mother reveal a startling sense of entitlement and his treatment of those closest to him, including his partner Voli, show a marked lack of empathy.
[09:30] But despite this, Sheila didn't use self-portraiture to celebrate himself, but to expose an inner truth.
[09:38] And whilst it emerged from the personal, it explored something much wider.
[09:43] He certainly wasn't flattering himself in either subject or aesthetic.
[09:48] It is precisely his distorted use of line and composition that make his self-portraits so compelling.
[09:54] That and the proliferation of male nudes, a rarity in art.
[10:03] Sheila was academically trained and was a master draftsman.
[10:06] I think his line work is why his images still feel alive.
[10:12] work is why his images still feel alive and immediate over a century later.
[10:16] and immediate over a century later. Sheila's line is unmistakable.
[10:19] Sheila's line is unmistakable. Even a fragment, a wrist, a cheek, a fold of cloth is recognizably his.
[10:22] fragment, a wrist, a cheek, a fold of cloth is recognizably his.
[10:26] That's because his line has a particular rhythm, angular, tense, and economically placed.
[10:28] because his line has a particular rhythm, angular, tense, and economically placed.
[10:32] rhythm, angular, tense, and economically placed. It's not just a means of describing form.
[10:34] placed. It's not just a means of describing form.
[10:38] describing form. It's a voice. When people describe Sheila's shoress of line, they don't necessarily mean smooth or conventionally graceful.
[10:40] people describe Sheila's shoress of line, they don't necessarily mean smooth
[10:43] line, they don't necessarily mean smooth or conventionally graceful.
[10:46] or conventionally graceful. In fact, many of his lines are jagged, angular, or abruptly broken.
[10:48] many of his lines are jagged, angular, or abruptly broken.
[10:52] or abruptly broken. But they feel decisive. Any discussion of Sheila must start with the naked body.
[10:55] decisive. Any discussion of Sheila must start with the naked body.
[10:58] start with the naked body. He used his own body repeatedly, showing it more emaciated than it actually was, radically distorted and twisted, sometimes faceless or limbless, sometimes in abject terror, not to flatter but to expose vulnerability.
[11:00] own body repeatedly, showing it more emaciated than it actually was,
[11:03] emaciated than it actually was, radically distorted and twisted,
[11:05] radically distorted and twisted, sometimes faceless or limbless,
[11:08] sometimes faceless or limbless, sometimes in abject terror, not to flatter but to expose vulnerability.
[11:11] sometimes in abject terror, not to flatter but to expose vulnerability.
[11:14] flatter but to expose vulnerability, anxiety and sexuality.
[11:17] These are not likenesses.
[11:19] They are psychological portraits, a search for the self or the ego, a preoccupation of the time.
[11:26] They are often in an intersection between suffering and sex, as if he is disgusted with his own body.
[11:35] Outlined in black crayon, the brush strokes visible, the technique as exposed as his inner being, eliminating everything except the body, often floating, untethered on a blank background.
[11:49] frequently using white paint to emphasize the outline.
[11:52] No indication of social standing, profession, or character, of which we learn nothing, discarding centuries of ideas centered around portraiture.
[12:04] Isolated figures focus our gaze, and these stark fragmented compositions suggest a search for control over a body and psyche that had witnessed disintegration firsthand.
[12:14] had witnessed disintegration firsthand with the slow, painful death of his
[12:16] with the slow, painful death of his father from a sexually transmitted
[12:19] father from a sexually transmitted disease.
[12:22] It has been suggested that by portraying male nudes, Sheila was
[12:24] portraying male nudes, Sheila was leveling up the male female nude ratio.
[12:27] leveling up the male female nude ratio.
[12:29] But many models of this period and before were poverty-stricken prostitutes
[12:32] before were poverty-stricken prostitutes and didn't have a choice.
[12:36] Sheila did. He controls how he is seen.
[12:39] controls how he is seen. In contrast to his distorted self-portraits, in his
[12:42] his distorted self-portraits, in his unposed photographs, we see a more
[12:44] unposed photographs, we see a more relaxed, handsome, and fashionably
[12:46] relaxed, handsome, and fashionably dressed man.
[12:49] In this drawing, Sheila presents himself in a deliberately
[12:51] presents himself in a deliberately awkward pose.
[12:54] awkward pose. The elbow juts outward.
[12:57] His chin tucks behind his shoulder. His ribs protrude.
[13:00] ribs protrude. The line is confident, almost aggressive.
[13:03] almost aggressive. And as was often the case, he avoided lush pallets.
[13:06] case, he avoided lush pallets. Instead, using ochres, browns, greens, and palid
[13:10] using ochres, browns, greens, and palid skin tones suggestive of decay.
[13:14] skin tones suggestive of decay. This is not a natural pose. It's bordering on
[13:16] Not a natural pose.
[13:19] It's bordering on discomfort.
[13:19] His hands often take on as much psychological weight as the faces in his portraits.
[13:25] Sometimes exaggerated, angular, clawlike, or elongated to the point of distortion.
[13:31] They become the most expressive elements in his self-portraits, mostly in this peculiar V-shape, a pose he practiced in photos and one we see time and time again in his works, in a gesture conveying tension or visual expressions of something internal.
[13:48] Deliberately and carefully choreographed.
[13:50] One of the last oil paintings Sheila did included one of his last self-portraits.
[13:58] His wife Edith was pregnant at the time with her first child, and they were comfortable, happy, and settled.
[14:04] Unaware of the tragedy yet to come.
[14:10] Sheila's body wasn't just a subject.
[14:13] It was a vehicle for expressing the tension and fragmentation of his time.
[14:15] His raw
[14:18] and fragmentation of his time.
[14:20] His raw style was shaped by more than personal style was shaped by more than personal pain.
[14:23] He came of age in the final years of the Austrohungarian Empire, a sprawling multithnic state struggling with nationalist tensions, political fragmentation, and looming war.
[14:35] Politically, Vienna was caught between the old imperial order and modern democratic movements.
[14:42] Culturally, it was a laboratory for psychoanalysis.
[14:46] Radical art, music, and taboo breaking literature.
[14:51] Modern ideas in technology, medicine, and the arts clashed with deeprooted traditions.
[14:56] The self became a key site of exploration in both culture and science.
[15:02] Out of this chaos, the Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of artists led by Gustav Climpmpt, who broke away from the dominant conservative style.
[15:12] Sheila immediately gravitated to Climp's expressive works, and the secession motto, to the age its
[15:21] and the secession motto, to the age its art, to art is freedom, reflected the art, to art is freedom, reflected the modernism he would go on to embrace.
[15:27] You can clearly see Climp's influence in Sheila's early works, particularly in his use of pattern and decoration, but the younger artist quickly found his own artistic voice.
[15:40] Artists, writers, and others were coming of age at a turning point where everything, morals, politics, empires, felt unstable.
[15:50] And Sheila's new sparse figures often embody this instability.
[15:57] twisted poses, tense gestures, bodies that seem in flux or under strain.
[16:03] They evoke not just personal discomfort, but something larger, the sickness and fragility of an entire society.
[16:11] But this physical imagery of illness and disintegration wasn't just metaphorical.
[16:17] They were symptoms of a deeper obsession gripping Vienna.
[16:19] medical science.
[16:26] Sigman Freud, father of psychoanalysis,
[16:29] Sigman Freud, father of psychoanalysis, reshaped ideas about the unconscious,
[16:31] reshaped ideas about the unconscious, repression, dreams, and sexuality,
[16:34] repression, dreams, and sexuality, challenging the belief that humans were
[16:36] challenging the belief that humans were ruled only by reason.
[16:39] In a society uneasy about sex and morality, his view
[16:42] of sexuality as central to life was met
[16:45] with repression. Artists turned inward.
[16:48] For Sheila, the erotic, pathological, intimate, and grotesque often
[16:51] intimate, and grotesque often overlapped. But psychiatry wasn't the
[16:54] overlapped. But psychiatry wasn't the only innovative field in medicine at the
[16:56] only innovative field in medicine at the time. The discoveries made in neurology
[16:58] time. The discoveries made in neurology were just as important. The medical
[17:01] were just as important. The medical journal econography de la Petri was
[17:04] journal econography de la Petri was intended as a visual reference for
[17:08] intended as a visual reference for neurological diagnosis. It was cutting
[17:10] neurological diagnosis. It was cutting edge. Medical photography was still new,
[17:13] edge. Medical photography was still new, and the images it published of
[17:16] and the images it published of neurological patients were unusually
[17:18] neurological patients were unusually vivid, detailed, and staged. It became a
[17:20] vivid, detailed, and staged. It became a curiosity collected by those outside the
[17:27] curiosity collected by those outside the medical profession, and eventually an medical profession, and eventually an iconographic source for artists in their iconographic source for artists in their search for new ways of representing the search for new ways of representing the body.
[17:34] Sheila's likely exposure to the body. Sheila's likely exposure to the journal came through vianese medical journal came through vianese medical networks, notably Dr. Irvvin Vongraph, a networks, notably Dr. Irvvin Vongraph, a gynecologist who allowed Sheila to gynecologist who allowed Sheila to sketch patients at Vienna's women's sketch patients at Vienna's women's clinic and also through his studio mate clinic and also through his studio mate Irvvin Osen, who sketched at medical Irvvin Osen, who sketched at medical lectures.
[17:52] Having seen his father die of lectures. Having seen his father die of syphilis, Sheila's interest was syphilis, Sheila's interest was personal.
[17:57] His work blurs the line personal. His work blurs the line between sickness and health, seeing the between sickness and health, seeing the body in all forms as his truest subject.
[18:02] And this fascination with bodily body in all forms as his truest subject. And this fascination with bodily expression, gesture, and identity would expression, gesture, and identity would lead Sheila into new territory.
[18:10] One influenced not by medicine, but by lead Sheila into new territory. One influenced not by medicine, but by movement, masks, and the performance movement, masks, and the performance traditions of distant cultures.
[18:18] traditions of distant cultures.
[18:24] [Music] [Music] One of the more surprising influences on
[18:27] One of the more surprising influences on Sheila came from the painted puppets of Javanese shadow theater.
[18:32] His friend and patron Arthur Rossler collected these stylized figures prized in the vianese avodgard for their ritualistic mystical quality.
[18:43] At the time, Austrian artist Richard Teshner was also adapting Javanese traditions for vianese audiences, reinforcing their influence.
[18:51] Rosler recalled showing his collection of puppets to Sheila, who he said played with them for hours.
[18:59] It's hard not to see the connection between Sheila's work and the bent limbs and angular and flattened silhouette shapes of these puppets set against empty or negative space.
[19:11] In some early self-portraits, Sheila's hands seem to manipulate himself like a puppet, creating a tension between control and collapse and mirroring the theatricality of the Javanese performances.
[19:29] film about Sheila must confront controversy.
[19:33] As he pushed artistic boundaries, he pushed social ones too.
[19:37] Sheila lived with his partner Vi for 4 years, but they weren't married, which in early 20th century society was considered deeply scandalous.
[19:47] Struggling financially, they left Vienna and moved to the small town of Nombbach.
[19:53] But the conservative community soon clashed with his eccentric behavior and provocative art, alarming locals and feeding suspicion.
[20:00] In 1912, tensions reached a breaking point.
[20:04] Sheila was arrested and charged with allegedly seducing a minor.
[20:09] Though he was acquitted of that serious charge, he was convicted of displaying indecent drawings where children could see them.
[20:16] He served 24 days in jail.
[20:20] Whether his motives were purely artistic or something more sinister remains debated, but his behavior caused real unease.
[20:27] Acknowledging this uncomfortable
[20:30] unease. Acknowledging this uncomfortable dimension is essential, not to justify
[20:33] dimension is essential, not to justify it, but to understand both the radical
[20:35] it, but to understand both the radical nature of his art and the moral
[20:37] nature of his art and the moral complexities it raises for us as viewers
[20:39] complexities it raises for us as viewers today. Not least the debate between art
[20:43] today. Not least the debate between art and exploitation.
[20:45] and exploitation. During his imprisonment, Voli stood by
[20:47] During his imprisonment, Voli stood by him, visiting regularly and offering her
[20:50] him, visiting regularly and offering her support. Her loyalty was not repaid.
[21:00] On July the 28th, 1914, the world was
[21:03] On July the 28th, 1914, the world was swept into a vicious war. Then in June
[21:06] swept into a vicious war. Then in June 1915, Sheila ended the relationship with
[21:09] 1915, Sheila ended the relationship with Voli and married the respectable
[21:11] Voli and married the respectable middleclass Edith Harms just days before
[21:14] middleclass Edith Harms just days before being conscripted for the war. He
[21:17] being conscripted for the war. He avoided frontline combat and by 1917 was
[21:20] avoided frontline combat and by 1917 was transferred to a barracks near Vienna
[21:22] transferred to a barracks near Vienna where he mainly did clerical work which
[21:25] where he mainly did clerical work which left him time to draw these
[21:27] left him time to draw these extraordinary portraits of prisoners,
[21:30] extraordinary portraits of prisoners, officers and fellow soldiers. His close
[21:33] officers and fellow soldiers. His close friend and mentor Gustav Climpmpt died
[21:35] friend and mentor Gustav Climpmpt died in February 1918 after a stroke and
[21:38] in February 1918 after a stroke and pneumonia, 9 months before the end of
[21:41] pneumonia, 9 months before the end of the war. Then, just as the war was
[21:43] the war. Then, just as the war was drawing to a close, another deadly force
[21:46] drawing to a close, another deadly force would claim at least 50 million lives
[21:48] would claim at least 50 million lives across Europe. In October 1918, the
[21:52] across Europe. In October 1918, the Spanish flu swept through Vienna. And
[21:55] Spanish flu swept through Vienna. And within days, Edith was dead. She was 6
[21:58] within days, Edith was dead. She was 6 months pregnant. 3 days later, Sheila
[22:02] months pregnant. 3 days later, Sheila followed her. He was only 28 years old.
[22:08] followed her. He was only 28 years old. [Music]
[22:18] Egon Sheila created some of the most
[22:20] Egon Sheila created some of the most psychologically charged and emotionally
[22:23] psychologically charged and emotionally intense works of the early 20th century.
[22:27] intense works of the early 20th century. In his self-portraits, themes of
[22:29] In his self-portraits, themes of eroticism, mortality, and the fragility
[22:31] eroticism, mortality, and the fragility of the human condition are laid bare
[22:34] of the human condition are laid bare with unflinching honesty. His distorted
[22:37] with unflinching honesty. His distorted figures and expressive lines still
[22:39] figures and expressive lines still provoke outrage and fascination because
[22:42] provoke outrage and fascination because they strip away comfort and force us to
[22:45] they strip away comfort and force us to confront what lies beneath. For Sheila,
[22:48] confront what lies beneath. For Sheila, the body was never just a subject. It
[22:50] the body was never just a subject. It was a vessel for emotional truth.
[22:54] was a vessel for emotional truth. By turning his own image into a kind of
[22:56] By turning his own image into a kind of allegory, he spoke not only of himself
[22:59] allegory, he spoke not only of himself but of the anxieties, desires and wounds
[23:03] but of the anxieties, desires and wounds of the world around him, around us.
[23:07] of the world around him, around us. Sheila unsettles us and perhaps that is
[23:10] Sheila unsettles us and perhaps that is his greatest skill. To be unsettled is
[23:13] his greatest skill. To be unsettled is to question and to question is to feel
[23:16] to question and to question is to feel alive.
[23:17] alive. [Music]
[23:23] I'd like to read you an extract from my
[23:25] I'd like to read you an extract from my introduction because I think it says
[23:28] introduction because I think it says everything I want to say about what this
[23:30] everything I want to say about what this book is.
[23:32] book is. Art doesn't exist in a vacuum. Monet's
[23:35] Art doesn't exist in a vacuum. Monet's waterlies can be seen on a purely
[23:37] waterlies can be seen on a purely aesthetic level. But we can also go
[23:40] aesthetic level. But we can also go beyond their surface beauty to consider
[23:42] beyond their surface beauty to consider whether these works created during the
[23:44] whether these works created during the first world war can also be viewed as
[23:47] first world war can also be viewed as profound meditations on the power of art
[23:50] profound meditations on the power of art in the face of human conflict.
[23:53] in the face of human conflict. We can appreciate Michelangelo's pieta
[23:55] We can appreciate Michelangelo's pieta for its Christian symbolism and its
[23:58] for its Christian symbolism and its mastery of marble, but we can also view
[24:00] mastery of marble, but we can also view it in more universal terms as an
[24:03] it in more universal terms as an exploration of motherhood and grief.
[24:06] exploration of motherhood and grief. Freda Carlo self-portraits are not just
[24:09] Freda Carlo self-portraits are not just personal expressions. They are lenses
[24:11] personal expressions. They are lenses into Mexican culture, identity, and the
[24:14] into Mexican culture, identity, and the artist's own complex relationships.
[24:17] artist's own complex relationships. Every great work of art carries with its
[24:20] Every great work of art carries with its echoes of its time. The politics, the
[24:23] echoes of its time. The politics, the religion, the economy, the social norms,
[24:26] religion, the economy, the social norms, and the individual struggle that shaped
[24:29] and the individual struggle that shaped his creation.
[24:31] his creation. This book looks at those contexts.
[24:36] This book looks at those contexts. available now for pre-order.
[24:38] available now for pre-order. >> Thank you.