The Radical Nude Exhibition - Research Paper Example

The Radical Nude Exhibition The essay is a performative text about Egon Schiele whose paintings and drawings are considered to be part of an early exponent of expressionism.1 Based on the understanding created by Della Pollock about performative writing, it is expected that the essay will achieve the goal of representing a performative life.2 There are a number of qualities or characteristics that, as posited by Pollock, performative writing possesses. Four of them will serve as the basis for the essay, including performative writing as relational, embodied, evocative, and consequential. Interestingly, most of the works of Egon Schiele which were part of the Radical Nude Exhibition in London in 2014 can be said to demonstrate such acts of social and performative characteristics. It is for this reason that these components of performative writing are chosen to be reflected in the essay. To achieve a better perspective of the performative text therefore, Egon Schiele’s expressionist works are analysed in the theoretical scope of performativity. Performativity has been explained as the ability to use speech and communication to act or perform an identity.3 As Egon Schiele was a painter, the communication referred to in this context would be the paintings he did, which had exponents of expressionism. As the essay looks at the work of Egon Schiele through the theoretical model of performativity, it is believed that the essay will achieve the performative text nature it seeks to be. The overall approach to the essay attempts to answer one critical question based on a quotation by Pollock, where she sought to find the distinction between creative writing and critical writing. The critical question of the essay is thus given as: ‘In what ways do the Radical Nude works of Egon Schiele exemplify the distinctions by which creative and critical artistries are typical isolated?’ To use the essay to answer the question, three major works of Egon Schiele, which were part of the Radical Nude Exhibition, will be reviewed in relation to how well they express performativity. The three works to be used in exhausting arguments around the question include Two Girls Embracing (1915), Standing Nude with Stockings (1914), and Crouching Woman (1914). To a large extent therefore, apart from the fact that the essay will be focusing on Egon Schiele as an artist and his three works as artworks, it will also be looking at art in the 1910s. The rationale for this approach to the essay is to help find a common ground where expressionism can be viewed as a type of art having the critical elements of social communication and performance rather than just serving the purpose of sexual fantasies. Some key terms explored in the essay include performativity, performative writing, cultural contextualisation, individual psychology, exaggerate gesture, relational art, embodied art, evocative art, and consequential art. Expressionism behind the radical nude works of Egon Schiele Many consider the nude portraits of Egon Schiele as being more daring and disturbing today than they were a century ago, when they were painted.4 In the view of such commentators, nudity and sexual explicitness have become a common part of our society today. This same argument can however be used to depict the strong sense of longevity and perpetual reasoning with which Egon Schiele approached his art. Indeed, the argument as to which of emotional experience and physical reality in art reveals the most performative nature of humans continues to be debated in the field of art.5 But as an expressionist, Egon Schiele can clearly be said to be an example of the power and influence that expressionism exerts on human society. This is because most of his works have become embraced as a centre of performativity several years after his works were made. A number of commentators have described the works of Egon Schiele as not just being nude but radical nudity due to the extent of expressiveness with which the artist did his painting. With the example of the three artworks below, it is justified and explained that the Radical Nude works of Egon Schiele had a more detailed expression of meaning and emotional experience than just being used for building an art of sexual ecstasy. In effect, Egon Schiele used nudity for a meaningful purpose. Two Girls Embracing (1915) This is a drawing made in 1915 with the use of pencil, water colour, and gouache on paper. The artwork shows two women in what can be seen as a lesbian intimacy. The nipples and lips of the women are highlighted in lurid red. As with most of his works, the women are naked with what is seen as linen of cloth covering one of them, and both women wearing boots. Indeed this is a piece of art that can be said to carry very significant expressionism meaning, particularly considering the time it was made. Tracing the history of lesbianism in the United States, it is said that the period from 1900 to 1949 was when the earliest published studies on lesbian activity had generally started.6 Some of these works were championed by such writers as Margaret Otis who wrote “A Perversion Not Commonly Noted” in 1913. Indeed the events in the United States had had influence in other parts of the world, including Austria, where the debate on the legality of lesbianism had only just became. Two Girls Embracing can therefore be said to be a work of art that was used to depict the dilemma that was going on in Austria and most other parts of the world including the United State. This is because even at the time, lesbianism was not openly legalised in any state in the United States.7 As an expressionist, Egon Schiele was therefore using his work to stir public debate on the possible consideration of the issue from the point of human rights and individual freedom, given that the two women in the drawing were seen as adults who were delighted about what they were involved in. Indeed a century later, lesbianism is something that has become legal in several parts of the world based on the argument of human rights and personal freedom. Standing Nude with Stockings (1914) This is another artwork by Egon Schiele that received much criticism when it was produced in 1914, for showing a woman standing nude. As with most of his nude art work, the lips and nipples of the woman were coloured in lurid red. This was perhaps done to communicate the essentiality of these organs of the woman as carrying the power of expressive passion and intimacy. But apart from the sensual imagery that the drawing readily creates, there is no denying the fact that the artwork carried a great magnitude of vital exchange between the artist and the audience, helping to generate an emotional experience. For example, the drawing shows a strong and confident woman who seems to be in control of her personality and gender. Meanwhile, issues of gender disparity in most part of Europe and the United States have been reported to have been very common around the time the drawing was made.8 At the time, most men saw women as inferior and not having what it takes to be in control of society. As such acts exhibits in some parts of the world even today, Standing Nude with Stockings can be said to be an important expressionist artwork that sent a strong message out there about the confidence, strength and level of control that women had. This work of art was therefore significant in expressing the value of a woman in her raw state without the aid of any complex outward artificial adoring in the form of clothes. Crouching Woman with a Green Headscarf (1914) As a little deviation from most of his works, even though Crouching Woman with a Green Headscarf was a nude drawing, it had a significant presence of clothing, covering some sexually explicit parts of the woman, as this drawing shows a hunched figure which was carved from a cocoon made of emerald and blue drapery.9 On the whole, this drawing depicts a moment of soberness, loneliness and boredom. This can therefore be used to exemplify the different shades of the female gender and life in general. Certainly, an expressionist would not want to create the idea that the world is all about romance and good times but that there are times for sober reflection and critical thinking. As in the popular biblical passage, there is time for everything. This drawing could possibly show a time when the woman had been left alone by her lover and so she was in waiting mood. It is not surprising that instead of the usual total nakedness, she was seen as clothing herself in waiting for her lover. As a communication and performance to the larger society, this work can be said to have been used to send a signal to the world of how some women could be left lonely at home by their men. It is important to emphasise that the year in which the drawing was made was when the First World War started in 1914. As the armies of various countries were dominated by men, the artwork is certainly sending that emotional experience of how lonely wives field at home when they were left by their husbands. Cultural contextualisation versus individual psychology One important component of the works of expressionism is for artists to send a kind of meaning that not only serves individual interests but also acts as a catalyst for cultural change and transformation.10 Once this is done, it can be said that the work of art has been used to trigger performance among society and thus achieved a performative status. Interestingly, it is possible to look through the works of Egon Schiele at the Radical Nude Exhibition and develop a deeper cultural contextualisation rather than a mere individual psychology, even though events of individual psychology cannot be denied from the works of the artist. As Egon Schiele’s works generally depict nude women and sometimes of himself as a man, two major cultural contextualisation can be developed from his works instead of looking at them from an individual perspective. The two cultural contexts of his works are womanhood and gender. Instead of seeing a nude girl in Egon’s work, one can be made to see womanhood. Indeed when used in a socio-cultural context, womanhood describes the overall qualities of a woman or a girl that makes her standout as a symbol of beauty, strength and nature.11 There is no denying the fact that the world over, womanhood is a cherished assert, leading to several laws and rules made in various parts of the world to protect the natural state of women. Typical example of this is special policies and laws on maternal healthcare, aimed at reducing maternal deaths. When Egon paints nude women, he is therefore creating an awareness of the inner beauty of the woman through womanhood that makes her a distinguished member of society. Because of the quality of womanhood, any woman picked at random is likely to be treated with the needed care, tenderness and respect. The works of Egon therefore come to glorify a cultural feeling of innate acceptance of womanhood rather than ordinarily portraying the nakedness of women. If for nothing at all, the true beauty of a woman is in her natural state rather than any outward clothing she adorns. Apart from the concept of womanhood, gender is another important cultural context from which the works of Egon Schiele and the Radical Nude Exhibition in general can be taken. As gender is used to define the distribution and execution of roles and responsibility, one may want to gain a cultural understanding of what male and female roles were at the time of painting and the impact that the roles had on each other. A typical example of this can be seen with the military role that males played in the World War I and how this affected women in the society at the time. Quite apart from the World War I, there were other military responsibilities that young male adults were forced to be engaged in. In one such drawing of himself, Egon Schiele showed the outcome of his experience with military duty as a guard in a camp of Russian prisons. The drawing clearly showed a tormented self portrait, having an inelegant buttocks and hips with receding shoulders. Such a drawing was certainly made to have a cultural context of gender and its effect on society rather than merely showing a naked image of one’s self. Nude Self Portrait (1910) Performativity in the works of Egon Schiele Use of exaggerated gesture as characteristic of relational art Pollock described performative writing as relational when the writer is able to exhibit writing done in a way that shows that he or she cares for the audience.12 Relating this to art, a piece of artwork can be said to be relational when audience at an exhibition feel cared for by the artist. There are a number of ways to exhibit that form of care. One of these is to ensure that the piece of artwork makes a difference by marking a significant contribution to their lives. As far as Egon Schiele was concerned, such relational art was depicted through the use of highly exaggerated gestures in his nude drawings. As far as the need to make a difference is concerned, it has already been discussed that most of the works of Egon Schiele had themes that were cultural in nature. As culture defines the way of life of a group of people, any impact that the artist made with his artworks with themes such as womanhood and gender can be said to have related directly with the lives of the people. To ensure performativity, it is always important that the audience will learn something new at the end of viewing a piece of artwork. With the form of exaggerated gestures used by Schiele, this is certainly a principle that audience at the Radical Nude Exhibition can be assured to achieve. The reason for this assertion is that using exaggerated gestures such as nudity makes it possible to relate very deep into the souls of audience.13 This is because even though most people may see nudity as a forbidden social concept, there is no denying the fact that nudity marks the basic instinct of humanity and that nudity is part of every individual. When a theme is exemplified with the use of nudity therefore, it is easier for it to be accepted as part of the ordinary nature of the viewer. Such exaggerated gestures also make the relation between the artist and the audience penetrative. This is because instead of having so many things to look at in a single artwork to make meaning from it, a view the naked picture sends a very simple and straightforward meaning to the viewer. If for nothing at all, such things as elaborated dresses, ornaments and make-ups that may distort the meaning of the artwork are all eliminated, leaving that natural sense of humanity for the viewer to admire. Use of exaggerated gesture as a characteristic of evocative art Evocative performativity has been said to be achieved when a piece of writing or an artwork has the quality of being lifted into a more sensuous awareness.14 Though generally exaggerative with the use of nudity, it cannot be denied that such acts of evocative art were achieved with the works of Egon Schiele. This was indeed one way that the artist exhibited the distinction between critical art and creative art. This is because Egon Schiele used his works to depict critical thinking through creativity. Such creativity in lifting the artwork into a more sensuous awareness can be exemplified with the use of colours to depict the most vital parts of the nude images he painted. This is because for a work to be evocative, it is expected that it can present detail, sensuality and verisimilitude.15 Meanwhile by painting the nipples and lips of almost all the nude women in his works with a lurid red colour, audience are evoked to giving a critical thought of the exact value that the artist might be trying to create. This way, the creativity can be said to have resulted in critical thinking. Egon Schiele’s works were therefore not merely meant to be exaggerative but to create critical thinking through creativity. Another component of evocative art is its ability to be suggestive and reminiscent by operating in a metaphorical way to render absence presence.16 One of the artworks at the Radical Nude Exhibition that clearly does this is Two Girls Embracing, which was painted back in 1915. As explained earlier, the issue of lesbianism was still highly controversial at the time but thoughts of human rights and personal freedom had actually not taken centre stage of public discourse. Through the explicit and exaggerated gestures used in that particular painting, audience who have had the privilege of viewing “Two Girls Embracing” from the very time it was made certainly had a suggestive message presented to them. It is not surprising that less than 30 years after his death in 1918, lesbianism became a topic that took a new dimension in its discussion with several paperback novels lesbian pulp fiction genres being published from 1950.17 Egon Schiele was therefore very successful in becoming evocative by rendering to his audience what they were not just going to experience in the present but in the absent future as well. Another example of an artwork used by Egon Schiele to gain tremendous evocative impact is Nude Self Portrait, which resulted in the abolishment of compulsory military service in most parts of the world after the First World War.18 Use of exaggerated gesture as a characteristic of embodied art A piece of artwork can be said to be embodied if it has the ability of carrying the viewer or audience to that place in the mind of the artist.19 Most certainly, there cannot be a better way of carrying a person into the inner meaning of humanity than doing so with a naked image of a human being. This is because in that form, the human being is presented in the most natural, unadulterated and raw form that could be achieved. Using exaggerated gestures of nudity therefore present a closer encounter with the state of human than an overly elaborated painting with dresses would carry. Having said this, it is important to admit that it was not all works of Egon Schiele that were in nudity. This is because such works as The Scornful Woman, Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up and Kneeling Girl in Orange-Red Dress were all painted with clothes on. However, the level and extent of conveying the viewer closer to the artist’s themes were better clearly seen to be done with those pictures in nudity. For example, comparing Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up, which was done with clothes on, to Crouching Woman with a Green Headscarf (1914), which was done in nudity, one has the sense that both works carried the theme of embittered womanhood. However, any critique of Standing Nude with Stockings has more to talk about by way of description to make the theme really outstanding. Standing Nude with Stockings (1912) The use of exaggerated gestures as a characteristic of embodied art can also be used to answer the question of the distinction between critical art and creative art. This is because Pollock emphasised that embodied writing or artwork must be able to serve as a marriage between the imagination and intellect. Here, the imagination serves the creativity aspect whiles the intellect serves the critical aspect. Relating to the nude works of Egon Schiele at the exhibition therefore, the actual sense of creativity and thus imagination can be said to have been carried out by limiting the extent of thinking that a viewer needed to do in order to get the message that a piece of artwork carried. By so doing, the form of marriage referred to by Pollock becomes easily created as the relationship between imagination and intellectual understanding of the artwork presented becomes on a step away from understanding in its most vivid form. Egon Schiele was therefore very successful with the creation of embodied art as part of the exhibition of performativity. Use of exaggerated gesture as a characteristic of consequential art Pollock notes that a piece of writing is consequential and thus performative if it is presented in a manner that breaks through sediments of meanings.20 In the same way, a piece of artwork that sediments its meaning can be said to be a consequential art. Using the example of writing, Pollock further noted that consequential performative is achieved as the sediments of meaning is made to reflect the core consequences of a concept in a well logical manner. Though Egon Schiele had been described as a radical artist whose emphasis is on the use of exaggerated gestures, it is important to ask if there were any forms of performative as exhibited through consequential art. Combining the examples of work such as “Nude self portrait” with “Crouching Woman with a Green Headscarf”, the conclusion that one can draw is that indeed Egon Schiele showed great mastery over consequential art presentation. This is because the two works and others that followed can be said to have been used to depict a very chronological message on what the consequence of forced army duties could be on both sexes. First, it was with his personal experience as a guard in a Russian prison, which was shared through the Nude Self Portrait. Apart from the fact that this painting alone could depict the consequence of what was happening at the time, it also represented consequential art when after four years, the Crouching Woman with a Green Headscarf was also painted to drum home the impact of the forced army service on women and for that matter the family home. This is because Crouching Woman with a Green Headscarf symbolises a house without a man where the woman is left in isolation and boredom as the man of the house was possibly engaged in the First World War, which was fought in the year the painting was made. Conclusion Ordinarily, the nude works of Egon Schiele may merely be seen as a symbol of sexual fantasy but upon critical review of most of his works, it has been established that sexual fanatics were far out of the discussion. It is not surprising that Schiele once mentioned emphatically that he ‘certainly didn’t feel erotic’ while doing his paintings.21 In furtherance to this, Schiele has clearly been identified as representing three major important components of art. These are expressionism, cultural contextualisation, and performativity. The visual art industry in the 1910s is one of the most significant in the history of the art, especially as it is thought by many to mark the beginning of expressionism. Expressionism had officially begun around the time of the First World War and this was the moment Egon Schiele was very active with his style. Through the paper, it has been established that Egon Schiele, through his nude drawings which became the focal point of the Radical Point Exhibition in London in 2014 Egon Schiele was able to establish a very strong brand of expressionism. In terms of cultural contextualisation, Schiele focused most of the themes of his works on issues with integral cultural significance rather than ordinary individual psychology. What is more, Schiele was seen as having an excellent positioning with audience because he could ensure that his art really communicated in a manner that created performance. Based on these points, it can be concluded that the works of Egon Schiele clearly sets the distinctions by which creative art and critical art are typically isolated and that, the isolation is in the message that the art carries rather than the ordinary sight of the art work. References Abramson, H. A., "The historical and cultural spectra of homosexuality and their relationship to the fear of being a lesbian.". The Journal of asthma research, vol. 17 issue 4, July 1980, pp. 177–88. Foster, H., The Crux of Minimalism, MA: MIT Press, Cambridge 1996. Foster, T., Long Before Stonewall: Histories of Same-Sex Sexuality in Early America. NYU Press, New York, 2007 Greenberg, C., Modernist Painting,: E. P. Dutton, New York, 1966 Jones, A., Body Art / Performing the Subject, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1998 Kaprow, A., “The Legacy of Jackson Pollock,” Art News vol. 57, October 1958, 24–26 Klein, Y., The Chelsea Hotel Manifesto, Rice University Institute for the Arts, Houston, 1982 Kramer, H., “The New American Painting,” Partisan Review, vol. 20, July–August 1953, p. 427. Pollock, D., Telling Bodies Performing Birth. NYU Press, New York, 1999 Rosenberg, H., “The American Action Painters,” Art News vol. 51, December 2002, 23–39. Tiampo, M., Gutai: Decentering Modernism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2011 Wullschlager, J., “Egon Schiele, Courtauld Gallery, London” in Financial Times. 2014, viewed on 10 January 2015, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/c243bf1a-5927-11e4-9546-00144feab7de.html Read More