Egon Schiele [Hardcover]

after wading through the fatuous, abstract and self absorbed writing that passes for art criticism nowadays it is deeply refreshing to encounter an author like jane kallir, who knows her stuff down to the most intricate footnoted fact but presents the main story with verve, clarity, insight and sympathy. as a portrait of the artist and as a history of art trends in prewar vienna, kallir's telling is searching and tightly written (kudos, too, to the editor).

the reproductions of several dozens of schiele's major works -- paintings and drawings -- are presented full page and full color, beautifully printed: it's possible to see the texture variations of schiele's line and the nuances of his color. browsing the work is a joy in itself. however, the real adventure is the catalog raisonne, which presents smaller format black and white images of every known work by schiele's hand (and even a few forgeries). though reduced in size -- six or so works are shown on each page -- the catalog images of the drawings are large enough to be easily legible, and the breakthroughs, variations, detours and consolidations in schiele's style are a fascinating visual story in themselves.

the price is high, but the book is big and heavy, and made to very high standards, so the price is fair. i'm very picky about books, and this book impressed me a lot.

after wading through the fatuous, abstract and self absorbed writing that passes for art criticism nowadays it is deeply refreshing to encounter an author like jane kallir, who knows her stuff down to the most intricate footnoted fact but presents the main story with verve, clarity, insight and sympathy. as a portrait of the artist and as a history of art trends in prewar vienna, kallir's telling is searching and well told.

the reproductions of several dozens of schiele's major works -- paintings and drawings -- are presented full page and full color, beautifully printed: it's possible to see the texture variations of schiele's line and the nuances of his color. browsing the work is a joy in itself. however, the real adventure is the catalog raisonne, which presents smaller format black and white images of every known work by schiele's hand (and even a few forgeries). though reduced in size -- six or so works are shown on each page -- the catalog images of the drawings are large enough to be easily legible, and the breakthroughs, variations, detours and consolidations in schiele's style are a fascinating visual story in themselves.

the price is high, but the book is big and heavy, and made to very high standards, so the price is fair. i'm very picky about books, and this book impressed me a lot.