At its exhibition to open at the end of June the Museum of Fine Arts will present Egon Schiele, an artist who exerted a major influence on early Viennese Expressionism, as well as numerous Viennese representatives of the style. The exhibition titled Egon Schiele and His Age will showcase over fifty works by Schiele, the majority of which have been loaned by the Leopold Museum in Vienna.

As a continuation of the exhibition Gustav Klimt and the Origins of the Vienna Secession, which opened in 2010, Egon Schiele and His Age, to run at the Museum of Fine Arts until the end of September, will provide an insight into the art of Egon Schiele, the most outstanding artist of the generation that followed Klimt, and, with the help of his contemporaries, into the early development of Viennese Expressionism, which replaced the Jugendstil. The 70 works contributed to the exhibition from the Leopold Museum Collection in Vienna, boasting with the richest collection of Schiele’s art in the world, are supplemented in the exhibition with the drawings and paintings by Schiele and Kokoschka preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, as well as by several pieces from private collections.

The bustling cultural life of Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century was still ablaze with the success of the Secession when the new pretenders to the throne made their appearance. These artists – some with a wild and rebellious spirit (Schiele, Kokoschka) and some escaping into a stifling loneliness (Richard Gerstl) – attracted enthusiastic support and vociferous criticism in equal measure, with their works often bearing the influence of their “masters” (Klimt, Moll, Kolo Moser). In this productive period marked by a diverse art scene and rich in artistic discourse the relationship between Vienna and Budapest also flourished, this being clearly demonstrated by the fact that almost exactly one hundred years ago (in 1912 and 1913) Schiele and other Austrian artists – including Gustav Klimt – exhibited their latest works in Hungary’s capital. The present exhibition focuses on Egon Schiele’s relatively short artistic career, spanning a mere ten years, a cross-section of which is provided by more than fifty works.

At the tender age of sixteen Schiele already became the youngest student at Vienna’s conservative Academy of Fine Arts but soon left in the company of some other students and founded the Neukunstgruppe (New Art Group). Schiele’s art was inspired by the leading figure of the Secession, Gustav Klimt, and by the guest artists (Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Munch) who participated in the exhibitions of his association. Klimt’s nudes imbued with eroticism – some of which will be displayed at the present show – directly influenced the young artist, who often visited the master’s studio. Schiele’s nudes drawn with tormented lines and wracked with anxiety, as well as his small townscapes soon attracted the public’s attention, while the authorities reacted to his indignant, taboo-breaking depictions of men, women and, in some cases, adolescents by imprisoning him for a short time on the charge of displaying indecent drawings. The Neukunstgruppe founded by Schiele was soon joined by the emblematic figure of Austrian art, Oskar Kokoschka, who also features at our exhibition. Other members of the New Art Group included Albert Paris Gütersloh, Hans Boehler and Anton Faistauer, works by whom are also displayed at our show along with three works – a portrait of a woman and two landscapes – by the most tragic and lonely figure of Viennese Expressionism, Richard Gerstl, who committed suicide at the age of just 25. Additional artists that will bring to life Austrian Expressionism are Anton Kolig, Leopold Blauensteiner, Herbert Boeckl and Max Oppenheimer, all of whom are significant yet scarcely known in Hungary.

The exhibition surveys the period in two halls through works arranged around 12 themes. Visitors will be guided through the following sections: Identity, Secession, Heritage, Early Viennese Expressionism, Portaying People, Richard Gerstl, Oscar Kokoschka, Change in Shiele’s Style, Mother and Child, The Second Generation of Viennese Modernism, Erotica, and Works of the Final Years with a display of such masterpieces as the Self Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant, The Hermits, Reclining Female Nude, Self-Seer, Portrait of Trude Engel, Dead Mother, Still Life with Drawings (Schiele’s Desk), and the Girl (The Virgin), as well as numerous other nudes and erotic depictions of women. Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to view the masterpieces from the featured period that are preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, such as Schiele’s masterpieces titled Two Girls Embracing and Standing Boy with Hat as well as Kokoschka’s work titled Veronica’s Veil.

The exhibition’s curator is art historian Kata Bodor. The exhibition’s chief sponsor is the Erste Bank.