Friday, November 10, 2006

Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) was born in Tulln Austria, fist studied art classiclly but was bored by the conservatism. In 1907 he met Gustav Klimt who inspired him and greatly influened his art. His work is relatively unknown and was diregarded by critcis, as being pornographic or to erotic. It wan't untill the year of his death that the merit of his work became relized. When his solo show in Paris met univrsal acclaim. His highly expressive figure drawings and paintings might be what he is most well known for today, but his range is evident in his collection of landscapes, and posters advertising art shows.
His character was questionable being accused of indecent relationships with his models, and they thought his art was to erotic and therfore corrupting the youth, although his character should not be considered into the merit of his artistic talent.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Picasso and Dali

Although Dali was not a big fan of Picasso's work, which is evident in his writing, they were friends. Most people don't know this. At one point Dali's wife Gala was visiting Picasso, and she knew that Picasso had quite a big ego about his work, and especially giving it away. Picasso said to Gala, "you can have any painting you want, here in the studio". Gala being very shrewd and knowing of Picasso's ego, she chose one of the very small paintings, knowing that if she picked one of the big ones it would piss Picasso off.

In the future, when Dali was moving to America, he was short of money at one point. He needed to borrow a few hundred dollars. And who did he go to, he went to Picasso. And Picasso lent him the money to move to America. Because Dali knew that he would be taking a ship to America, he produced a body of very small work, so he could travel with the pieces.