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L: Francesca Woodman, Eel Series (1978); R: Egon Schiele, Squatting Girl (1917)<\/p>\n L: Francesca Woodman, Eel Series (1978); R: Egon Schiele, Squatting Girl (1917)<\/p>\n
At first glance, \u00a0Egon Schiele and Francesca Woodman are an unlikely match. The former was a painter of contorted, anguished figures working in turn-of-the-century<\/span> Vienna; while the latter<\/span> was a photographer of arresting self-portraits navigating the early ’80s New York art scene. Yet, a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool unites these two unexpected artists in a one-of-a-kind show entitled, \u201cLife in Motion: Egon Schiele and Francesca Woodman\u201d. Described as a \u201cclose encounter\u201d between Schiele and Woodman, \u201cLife in Motion\u201d initiates a searingly intense dialogue between these two figures, who, as it turns out, have a lot more in common than one might have initially perceived. <\/span> The earliest work by Woodman exhibited is a self-portrait she took in 1972, aged just 13. In 1975, she enrolled at RISD, earning a scholarship to study abroad in Rome two years later. Meanwhile, Schiele attended Vienna\u2019s prestigious Academy of Fine Arts at the tender age of 15, going on to become a <\/span>prot\u00e9g\u00e9 <\/span>of Gustav Klimt. Although both artists are known as much for their tragically short lifetimes as they are for their outstanding artistic abilities \u2014 Schiele died aged 28 from Spanish flu; Woodman took her own life at 22, leaping from a loft window \u2014 they were remarkably prolific. Woodman made close to 800 photographs in her short career, while Schiele produced hundreds of oil paintings and thousands of drawings. <\/span>\u201cSchiele worked for about ten years, Woodman for about four or five, but they both produced so much work, which indicates how amazingly talented and driven they were,\u201d says Hemmes. \u201cTheir passion really does connect the them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n According to Hemmes, the decision to pair Schiele and Woodman together was based on their \u201cv<\/span>ery similar approach to depicting the human body \u2014 how they looked at the physicality, but also the emotional state of their subjects\u201d. Schiele is renowned for his entangled, sinewy figures rendered in ragged pencil marks or murky oils, whereas Woodman used a long exposure to create blurred, almost ghostly forms that merge with their surroundings. \u201c<\/span>I think our starting point for this exhibition was how they looked at the nature of the body and how they almost choreographed themselves and their models,\u201d explains Hemmes. \u201cThere are quite a lot of unusual poses in Schiele\u2019s work, while Woodman forms her body to fit certain spaces. It\u2019s this idea that the movement of the body doesn\u2019t just express physicality, but that it also gives a clear indication of the psychological state of the subject \u2014 that\u2019s really important in both artists\u2019 work.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Crouched against a wall, or awkwardly hunched over a mirror, Woodman unnervingly addresses the camera with a defiant gaze. Where the photographer is considered to be an early proponent of the selfie, Schiele, on the other hand, made darkly expressive self-portraits with troubled eyes and cavernous frown lines. Both used their naked bodies in subversive ways to confront the viewer with the urgent, pulsating energy of their own form. Hemmes regards the prevalence of the self in both artists\u2019 work to be two-fold. \u201c<\/span>On the one hand, it’s an exploration of the body and the self. But, there was also the practical element that they were always available. As a student it was easy for Woodman to depict herself, and for a long time Schiele didn\u2019t have the financial means to pay for models. When he wanted to draw a male figure, he just used a mirror to draw himself.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Both Schiele and Woodman have continued to inspire generation after generation of creative minds, across visual art, music and fashion. Hemmes is quick to confirm the breadth of their influence. <\/span>\u201cWoodman’s influence can be seen in fashion photography quite a lot, which is interesting because that\u2019s what she was interested in towards the end of her life. Artists like Cindy Sherman have also said they are heavily inspired by her \u2014 they were the same age, working at the same time. Schiele’s influence is quite broad. Tracey Emin has said that she is very much inspired by him, and I think there are a lot of similarities in the quick marks that you can see in her drawings. But, also people like David Bowie, for example. If you look at the album cover for ‘Heroes’, \u00a0he has adopted a very similar pose to one you often see in Schiele\u2019s work \u2014 emphasising the hands.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Both Schiele and Woodman shared a profound interest in the expressive potential of the body, particularly the female form. For Schiele, this interest was more explicitly erotic than it was for Woodman. In his works, nude women are often arranged, splayed and fleshy, as thrilling sources of erotic fascination. Hemmes points out the significance of these sensuous figures:\u00a0“Schiele was interested in female sexuality at a time when it was very much taboo. In early 20th century Vienna, this was something that wasn\u2019t even spoken about, so for him to depict it was quite radical”. <\/span> As a new exhibition opens at Tate Liverpool, we chart the unexpected ways that these two radical artists intersect. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[4649,2900,8997,1371,2101,10628,5008,1458,154,9254,1784,2635,5587,756,581],"class_list":["post-65659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-cindy-sherman","tag-drawing","tag-egon-schiele","tag-francesca-woodman","tag-gender","tag-gustav-klimt","tag-nude","tag-painting","tag-photography","tag-self-portraiture","tag-selfie","tag-sexuality","tag-tate-liverpool","tag-tracey-emin","tag-vienna"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n
\nBorn in 1890 in Tulln, Lower Austria, Schiele is regarded as one of the 20th century\u2019s most significant artists of the human body. His knotty, sexually-charged and troubling forms have unsettled viewers since their inception on account of their transgressive confrontation of psychological and physical struggle. Woodman, meanwhile, was born in Denver, Colorado in 1958 to artist parents, George and Betty Woodman. While a student at Rhode Island School of Design, she produced the majority of her haunting, monochrome photographs, which display her signatory long-exposure technique. Her images are lauded for their disturbing intimacy and bold treatment of the nude female form \u2014 something she has in common with Schiele. The exhibition’s curator, Tamar Hemmes, notes how both of these artists “capture a moment of time” through their unrestrained artistic experiments that sought to realise all the vigour and verve of human complexity, both corporeal and cerebral.\u00a0<\/span>
\nOn the opening of this momentous exhibition, we sit down with Hemmes to discover the other unexpected similarities shared by these two subversive souls.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/f50524ee5f161f437400aaf215c9e12f-2.jpg\")
Egon Schiele, Standing Male Figure (Self-Portrait) (1914); R: Francesca Woodman, Untitled, Providence (1976)<\/p>\n1. They were precociously talented from a young age<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Francesca-Woodman-Untitled-Providence-Rhode-Island-1975\u20131978-AR00359.jpg\")
Francesca Woodman, Untitled, Providence (1975\u20131978)<\/p>\n2.The human body dominates their work<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Egon-Schiele-Self-Portrait-in-Crouching-Position-1913-1.jpg\")
Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait in Crouching Position (1913)<\/p>\n3.\u00a0They explored the self as subject<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Francesca-Woodman-From-Polka-Dots-Providence-Rhode-Island-1976-AR00351.jpg\")
Francesca Woodman, From Polka Dots (1976)<\/p>\n4. Their influence is far-reaching<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/f50524ee5f161f437400aaf215c9e12f-1.jpg\")
L: Egon Schiele, Reclining Woman with Green Slippers (1917);R: Egon Schiele, Standing Nude Girl (1914)<\/p>\n5. They were radical purveyors of female sexuality <\/span><\/h3>\n
\nThe sexuality present in Woodman’s work frequently touches upon the enigmatic nature of female desire. Hers is often deeply personal, both a visceral and psychological investigation into the cryptic current of feminine passion. Hemmes maintains that her work is not sexual in the same way that Schiele’s is \u2014 “there is not a lot of temptation in her work. She was working at a time when feminism was on the rise in America, but I think it\u2019s quite interesting that her approach to the female nude is not political but very personal,” affirms Hemmes. “There is a sort of fragility to it. Not in the sense that the female body is fragile, but some of her works come across as quite tender, while others are an experimentation in deforming the body to explore its boundaries and limitations.”<\/span>
\n\u201cLife in Motion: Egon Schiele and Francesca Woodman<\/a>\u201d runs through to 23 September 2018 at Tate Liverpool<\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"