11.10.2024 – 02.03.2025
Around a quarter of Schiele’s paintings remain untraced to this day or were lost or destroyed, mostly before the Second World War. The exact circumstances of their disappearance remain a mystery to this day. These lost paintings, which encompass major themes such as death, sexuality, self-reflection, the search for identity, distortion, melancholy and faith, exist today only as shadowy photographs. Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie takes on the challenging task of not only resurrecting the works from the shadows, but also physically re-embodying and revitalising them. The aim is not to physically replicate Schiele’s shadows, but to offer their deeper essence a new, impossible body. The focus of this new cycle of works is on the human body and existence. It offers space for interpretations that go beyond the physical and delve into the transcendental. In this process, a deeper reflection on the nature of perception and the way we construct and deconstruct reality emerges. Schiele himself used the human body as a medium to convey deep emotional and psychological states and to raise questions about human existence, sexuality, death and spirituality.
Adrian Ghenie: Egon Schiele – Shadow Paintings
11.10.2024 – 02.03.2025
Albertina
Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna
www.albertina.at
