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Schiele was certainly questioning his own gender on an “unconscious or preconscious” level, says Gerald Izenberg, a Schiele essayist and celebrated historian on the concept of self. The contorting, androgynous limbs and potent, clothesless figures in Schiele’s portraits transcended gender binaries. “We are questioning gender norms and so was he.” “(He was) struggling with his own sexual feelings and gender norms, and I think that is where his work very much speaks to people’s concerns today,” says Kallir. She now believes that underlying the hetero gaze of the auteur we’ve come to know is, in fact, a story of sexual fluidity and queerness. Etienne, launched the Kallir Research Institute dedicated almost entirely to the expressionist artist.
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Last year, Jane Kallir, a renowned Schiele scholar and co-director of New York’s Galerie St. But, 100 years on, new information about Schiele’s sexuality and gender identity lifts the lid on his enduring legacy to reveal something far more. It has long been thought that the artist’s catalogue of erotically-charged nudes of women from the male gaze represents raw heterosexuality.
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Shows of his works are currently open in Vienna and New York City, and London, marking the centenary of his death, with fans visiting in droves. Due in part to the timelessness of sex and sensuality, 20th-century Austrian artist Egon Schiele – famed for his sensual nude portraits and grotesque, contorted bodies – still has a trusty, cult following 100 years after his death.