Although widely recognized as one of the greatest draughtsmen of the modern era, Egon Schiele is often underrated as a printmaker. Granted, he produced only seventeen prints (as compared with more than two thousand unique works on paper), but these lithographs, linocuts, woodcuts and etchings evi... Read more
Although widely recognized as one of the greatest draughtsmen of the modern era, Egon Schiele is often underrated as a printmaker. Granted, he produced only seventeen prints (as compared with more than two thousand unique works on paper), but these lithographs, linocuts, woodcuts and etchings evidence the same graphic intensity seen in the better-known drawings and watercolors. Schiele’s prints not only reflect artistic concerns he was pursuing contemporaneously in other mediums, but, clustered in the years 1912, 1914, 1916 and 1918, the graphics closely track his overall development. A comprehensive reassessment of this neglected aspect of the artist’s oeuvre is thus long overdue.
Fostering a wider understanding of Schiele’s multifaceted achievements has been central to the Galerie St. Etienne’s mission since its founding in 1939, at a time when few in the United States had ever heard of the artist. It therefore seems appropriate to focus our 70th anniversary celebration on Schiele’s prints, which furthermore occupy a significant place in our history. Otto Kallir, the gallery’s founder, began his career in Vienna as a publisher of limited-edition graphics. In 1921, he published the first edition of Schiele’s Portrait of Franz Hauer in the catalogue for the “Schwarz-Weiss” (Black-and-White) exhibition at the Künstlerhaus in Salzburg. The following year, he issued the portfolio Das graphische Werk von Egon Schiele (checklist no. 20), containing editions of all the artist’s etchings (Portrait of a Man, Self-Portrait, Portrait of Franz Hauer, Squatting Woman, Sorrow, Portrait of Arthur Roessler) and his last two lithographs (Portrait of Paris von Gütersloh and Girl), none of which had been published during Schiele’s lifetime. After compiling the catalogues raisonnés of Schiele’s paintings (1930 and 1966), Kallir wrote the first proper catalogue raisonné of the prints in 1970. Kallir’s granddaughter and current St. Etienne Co-Director, Jane Kallir, updated these catalogues raisonnés in her comprehensive volume Egon Schiele: The Complete Works (1990 and 1998).
to read more, go to the main gallery site: http://www.gseart.com/exhibitions.asp?ExhID=512
