From Vienna to Cesky Krumlov to Tulln:
A quest for the genius of Egon Schiele, part 1
Photographs and Commentary by
Herb Ranharter
There are four key places that let you come close to Egon Schiele in Europe: the Belevedere Museum, the Leopold collection in the Vienna Museum Quarter, the Schiele Museum in Tulln (about a half hour west of Vienna) and the Schiele Museum in Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic (a four hour train ride from Vienna). The Leopold collection is the most extensive, has many of the well known originals and is the most accessible. The Tulln Museum is full of facsimiles but has several artifacts from Schiele's life including the museum itself which is the prison where Schiele was incarcerated for lewd behavior.
The focus of this first of three articles is the Museum in Cesky Krumlov where Schiele's mother had lived and where he spent much of his time. In Cesky Krumlow Schiele ultimately was also ousted for lewd behavior.
The trip to Cesky Krumlov is a trip all by itself. (Pardon the pun.) A seemingly endless train ride from Vienna takes you to every dung heap in the chicken coup, but it is fun for sure if you like to change trains and look out over the landscape as it is slowly pulled away from under you. All the people you meet are very nice, helpful and friendly.
From the Krumlov station a 15 minute walk down hill takes you to the gate of a medieval Disneyland of a city, which turns out to be the star of the adventure. The Schiele Museum is easily found by hanging a right at the main square. Yes you have heard these words before, but you really can't miss it, that is if you can pry yourself loose from the enchantment of the village itself. Imagine every structure about 400 to 500 years old and older, cobblestones everywhere, plus the smells of restaurants and cafes luring you o succumb and lose your purpose.
The Museum is a converted brewery with much charm of its own. Columns and vaulted ceilings are complimented by brick and wooden floors and heavily beamed ceilings.
Prepare to surrender your cameras and bags in Stalag-like entrance where multiple locked iron gates remind you that the Iron Curtain may have been recycled along with some old attitudes. The documentation is extensive and rather dull in appearance loosened up by very few small original works and several facsimiles displayed under such dull light that you might think they are originals. Sadly enough, that is the lot of it. The remainder in the museum is an equally fiercely guarded collection of ... well ... I tend to be a bit critical on art and shall refrain from criticism. Needless to say 35 minutes is enough time for the vaults.
The real museum is the city of Cesky Krumlov that so obviously provided inspiration for many of Schiele's drawings and paintings. It is difficult to know what else motivated him in his work, but much of what can be seen in the various places reveals a deeply disturbed personality that is echoed in the equally disturbed clients who bought the work. Undoubtedly the work has its own unique style worthy of inclusion as art history and is now valued as such; one wonders at what personal price?
A quest for the genius of Egon Schiele, Part 2
After having traveled all the way from Vienna to the Schiele Museum in Cesky Krumlow in the Czech Republic I looked about town to see what is in my immediate vicinity. The big billing goes to the Schiele collection in the new Leopold Museum in the equally new Museum Quarters near the Vienna Ringstrasze at the foot of Mariahilferstrasze. The setting about the museum is grand, the royal stables converted for arts and events. The Museum itself is a colossal box; the architecture more or less fails to please. There are indeed a great many Schiele drawings and paintings to be seen. The remainder of the collection is interesting primarily from an art historical perspective. The stars on display are a few stunning works by Gustav Klimt and the many Schiele paintings and drawings which are all of a dark and depressing nature.
They appear not at all like the reproductions commonly seen in books where color and contrast are inevitably enhanced. I think they reveal the deeply troubled nature of the artist. It is forbidden to take pictures and the ban is strictly enforced; there are nearly as many guards as there are rooms, and they follow you at all times as if you were a suspected art thief; hence, just the photograph of the poster on the outside wall.
The best of Schiele's work is in the Belevedere Museum. The collection in this museum is splendid, well save the few abstract pieces in the lower tract of the Upper Museum - antidote?
Personally I am not much interested in the genre works of the 18th and 19th Century but there is some fine craftsmanship to be seen. The Lower Museum is well worth a visit with a collection of Messerschmidt heads and an absolutely amazing new collection of church art with exhibits dating all the way back to the 13th Century. It is stunning to see how the colors are preserved and how expressively the stories are depicted.
This leaves one more journey for me: to Tulln where Schiele was also thrown in jail for lewd behavior. The jail is now the gallery. I shall go and visit it soon and hopefully come back with more photographs.
A quest for the genius of Egon Schiele, Part 3
This is the third and final leg of the journey:
The Egon Schiele Museum in Tulln.
A 40-minute train ride outside of Vienna brings you to the birthplace of Egon Schiele, Tulln. Right at the bridge across the river Danube not far from downtown Tulln is an old jail that now serves as a museum. A new sculpture showing the artist twisting his hands much like he drew them in his pictures now draws you into the museum. The museum is an emulation of the jail in Neulengbach where Schiele was incarcerated for lewd behavior, and the cells now house more than 100 of his original drawings. Two floors of an odd assortment of facsimile and originals take you through the life story of the artist. A death mask of the artist and the painting of the broken mill are perhaps the most impressive of the exhibits. The drawings Schiele did while in jail have a fascinating line quality and are interesting to see as originals. A much too small bronze head of Egon Schiele that is placed on a pedestal in the stairwell looks a bit provincial if not outright silly.
A Wolfgang Hutter exhibit provided contemporary variety to the Museum during my visit. I was told it is necessary to provide a floor of contemporary art to attract visitors -- Schiele alone doesn't do it.
It is not a big Museum but it is definitely worth a visit. Combine it with whatever shows are in town. There seems to be a rock concert just about every weekend or some other event, and a stroll or a bike ride along the Danube disperses an afternoon with ease.
Greetings from Vienna,
Herb Ranharter
art2u.com/artist./ranharter.html
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