Review by Choice Review
Schiele's type of expressionism and subject matter have always remained popular. When he died in 1918 at age 28 he had produced an enormous amount of work, about 300 oils and more than 2,000 watercolors and drawings. A vast Schiele bibliography has developed. Kallir is an authority on Schiele, having written several works on fin de siecle and early-20th-century Vienna, its art scene, and Schiele in particular, including Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, the catalogue raisonne of his work (1990, expanded 1998). The present volume is introduced by graphic arts expert Vartanian, founder of Galiga Books. Scholars often recycle their past work and shuffle their scholarly insights in new ways like cards in a card deck. This interpretive biography does not present anything new. The reviewer did not found any previously unlisted drawing in this book; it is dependent on Kallir's previously published work. The absence of a selected bibliography and references for the citations makes the volume unsuitable for students unless used in combination with the catalogue raisonne. The illustrations, many of them in color, are of fine quality in spite of their size. ^BSumming Up: Optional. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through graduate students. E. E. Hirshler emeritus, Denison University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Co-director of the Galerie St. Etienne in New York, Kallir takes the reader through Schiele's incredibly fast development as a figurative artist of explosive sexuality, ending with his death at age 28 during the 1918 flu epidemic. More than 300 full-color, full-page plates carry titles, dates and physical descriptoins at the bottom of each page ("Standing Nude with Orange Stockings. 1914"), but the book itself is small for an art book, about the size of a typical hardcover novel, which makes turning the pages feel like reading the story of Schiele's life, a life inseparable from the decline of decadent, WWI-era Vienna. Richard Avedon has written a short foreword, and in his introduction Vartanian (Andy Warhol: Drawings and Illustrations of the 1950s) makes a plea for the reader to interpret Schiele's vision of sexuality as a kind of sacred message. After a "Biographical and Stylistic Study" by Kallir, 11 chapters covering one year each follow, with an essay introducing an uninterrupted arrangement of each year's images. Schiele's fleet, obsessive, searching work on paper includes beautifully colored landscapes, flowers and clothed figures, and his nudes retain a vital and unflinching immediacy that is perhaps even more clear here than in the paintings. The book deepens one's appreciation of a very overexposed artist's achievement-a difficult feat indeed. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Egon Schiele was a sometimes scandalous Austrian artist whose early death in 1918 at age 28 ended a short but prolific career as a draftsman and painter. Kallir is a gallery owner who deals in works by Schiele. In this compendium, over 300 drawings and watercolors, most depicting a single human figure, are reproduced in full-page color format. The artwork and the accompanying biographical text are organized into a detailed, year-by-year presentation of Schiele's artistic development. Many volumes of Schiele's work have been published over the last 30 years, and this one cannot be said to break new ground. But it is an affordable and attractive presentation of an important aspect of Schiele's art. Kallir has also written Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, which includes a catalogue raisonn?, but the present, more modest volume will be a good addition for public and academic libraries.-Kathryn Wekselman, M.Ln., Cincinnati (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
