EGON SCHIELE SYMPOSIUM
The Leopold Museum, with its most important collection of Egon Schiele's works worldwide, has been hosting a biennial symposium since 2016 that focuses on the diversity of research approaches and perspectives on this artist and thus proves the relevance and vitality of his oeuvre. The lecturers' contributions are published in conference proceedings.
Previous years:
2016
The contributions to the 1st Egon Schiele Symposium covered a broad field, ranging from Schiele's reference to photography and literature of his time, to the rhetoric of the surface in his drawings, to the topos of animate nature, to Schiele's location in Wittgenstein's Vienna. With lectures by Bazon Brock, Monika Faber, Ralph Gleis, Matthias Haldemann, Allan Janik and Carla Carmona Escalera, Stefan Kutzenberger, Elisabeth Leopold, Sonja Niederacher and Franz Smola.
Egon Schiele Symposium 2016
2017
As part of the 2nd Egon Schiele Symposium, Otto Kallir and Rudolf Leopold, two important promoters of Egon Schiele's art, were highlighted. In addition, there was a focus on puberty and sexuality, as well as Hundertwasser's reference to Schiele, his lyrical work and his contributions to Die Aktion, his connections to the Wiener Werkstätte and the last artist associations he founded. With lectures by Daniela Finzi, Kerstin Jesse, Jane Kallir, Pamela Kort, Diethard Leopold, Elisabeth Leopold, Rainer Metzger, Helena Perena, Franz Smola, Eva Werth and Norbert Christian Wolf.
Egon Schiele Symposium 2017
2019
The 3rd Egon Schiele Symposium opened with a keynote by Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel, which heralded the focus on the connection between medicine and art in Viennese Modernism. In addition, the expanded staging space of the exhibition medium was illuminated, as was Schiele's self-iconization and his appropriations of the visual vocabulary of prehistory and early history, as well as research results from the restoration field. With lectures by Gemma Blackshaw, Agathe Borusczak, Sandra Maria Dzialek, Verena Gamper, Stefanie Jahn, Eric Kandel, Elisabeth von Samsonow and Patrick Werkner.
Egon Schiele Symposium 2019
2021
The 4th Egon Schiele Symposium circled the dazzling artist friend Erwin Osen with, among other things, reflections on gender norms and the tension between art and medicine. Furthermore, the relationship between Schiele and Gustav Klimt was examined and views of Schiele's works were presented from a restoration perspective. With lectures by Christian Bauer, Gemma Blackshaw and Adam Kaasa, Elisabeth Dutz, Sandra Maria Dzialek, Verena Gamper, Jane Kallir, Stefan Kutzenberger, Elisabeth Leopold, Karin Maierhofer, Franz Smola, Sandra Tretter.
Egon Schiele Symposium 2021
2023
The 5th Egon Schiele Symposium focuses on individual artistic friendships of Egon Schiele and addresses selected aspects related to Albert Paris Gütersloh, Felix Albrecht Harta, Oskar Kokoschka, and Max Oppenheimer. The connection to the collector and museum founder Karl Ernst Osthaus is examined in detail, as is Schiele's network around the painter Adolf Hölzel. Additionally, an intriguing insight into the topic of monument protection for movable cultural assets related to Schiele's artworks is provided, and contemporary terminologies and concepts regarding the production of Viennese "Neukunst" are explored. The keynote speech this year initiates with the tension between form and function in artistic domains within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
EGON SCHIELE SYMPOSIUM 2023
2025
The 6th Egon Schiele Symposium focused on the artist’s connections to literary works and writers. Egon Schiele’s artistic work is closely intertwined with language, writing, poetry, and literature. In 1910, the talented and versatile expressionist created poems with neologisms, wrote numerous, often lyrical letters to friends and relatives over the years, and showed an interest in books – from literary works to art books and non-fiction books.
Schiele inherited the library left behind by his father, who died prematurely, and collected selected publications himself. For example, he most likely owned a copy of the limited edition of the Wiener Werkstätte fairy tale book Die träumenden Knaben (The Dreaming Boys), published in 1908 and designed by the young Oskar Kokoschka, and it is proven that he acquired the almanac Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), published in 1912 by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. Schiele was also in contact with writers and publishers, some of whom he also portrayed.
A reading by the well-known actor Christoph Luser was followed by lectures by Anna-Katharina Gisbertz, Simone Hönigl, Kerstin Jesse, Stefan Kutzenberger, Karin Rhein, Caroline Rosenauer, Marina Silenzi and Eva Werth.
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