The entire history of Western art is a history of human lust. From Van Gogh to Modigliani, from Rodin to Ingres, if a generation of famous artists were born today, I am afraid that the works would still be controversial, and people would still look at it with half curiosity and half ridicule, until after the long river of history, it finally became a masterpiece.
Like the controversial movie I'm going to talk about today: Egon Schiller: Death and the Maiden.
Egon Schiller was an Austrian painting magnate of the early 20th century, often conveying a strong expressiveness with neurotic lines and contrasting colors. A short life of untamed, full of suffering and ridicule like a martyr of art.
He died young, his life ended at the age of 28, but after his death, he illuminated the European art scene with a unique artistic brilliance, becoming an outstanding modern expressionist painter.
Death and the Maiden is Egon Schiller's most famous painting.
Egon Schiller: Death and the Maiden is a biopic, an excellent film, from an artistic point of view: perfect score. It tells the story of the last eight years of the life of the Austrian painter Egon Schiller.
The Austrian actor Noah Savidra, who plays Egon Schiller in the film, has a surprising appearance.
Schiller was good at painting human bodies and portraits, and most of his works were nudes.
His first model was his underage sister, and in his early works, most of the naked girls were the figures of his sister Gorty, an act that, even today, is to be labeled as incest, let alone in the era in which Schiller lived.
The second model, Moa, the daughter of an African sheikh, did not really love art, but simply wanted to become famous through Schiller's work, and after a brief intersection, the two parted ways.
After that, Schiller welcomed the most important woman in her life, Wally.
The two fell in love at first sight, and the lark-like woman ended up being the girl in Schiller's most famous painting, Death and the Maiden.
Schiller's life is almost incomprehensible, he was once sued in court for sexual assault by a 13-year-old girl next door for painting with an underage girl, although in the end the girl's hymen complete medical report was also cleared by Schiller.
However, the court still found him to have used minors for pornography, convicted him of three days in prison, and burned his paintings in court.
In court, Schiller protested on the spot, but to no avail. Whistler once said that "art has absolutely nothing to do with morality," but ordinary people who are mediocre cannot understand the inevitable conflict between art and universal values in the minds of artists.
In modern parlance, Schiller is a proper scumbag, and although Wally accompanied him through the most important years of his life, he eventually married the second lady of the neighbor's house and decided to enter into marriage, which was like a child's play for Schiller.
Before separating from Schiller, Wally wore a dress designed by Schiller himself, kissed him affectionately, and finally failed to keep the heart of the prodigal son.
Only the prototype of this painting called "Man and Girl" is left.
When World War I broke out, Schiller enlisted in the army, and Wally, in order to meet Schiller again, also worked as a hygienist with the army, and wrote Schiller's name in the family contact column.
Unfortunately, she did not succeed until her death, and eventually suffered from scarlet fever and died in the barracks.
Schiller, who was holding an exhibition, was deeply saddened to learn of Wally's death, and he believed that his letting go killed Wally, so he finally renamed the "Man and Girl" exhibited in the exhibition "Death and Girl".
After World War I, Schiller died of the flu at the age of 28.
In the days before his death, his sister Gorty did not abandon him, and in his short life, only Gorti and Wally understood his artistic life, and his wife, who finally decided to work with him for the rest of his life, was very resistant to the art form of body painting.
As a painter, Schiller has a strong artistic vitality and expressiveness, but as a man, he is as simple and impulsive as a child, his life is uninhibited, his private life is criticized, love and desire inspire his creation, but also let him do whatever he wants.
The artist is in love with only love, not a woman. When arguing with Wally, "I need you" rushed out, but he did not forget to add the words "used to paint" later.
Whether it is unwilling to admit love, or dare not admit love, and finally until it is lost, it understands the beauty that it originally had, and regrets it for life.
For Schiller, love, everything in life is art, and he can never stop and provide a solid and calm love for a woman.
For Wally, everything is love, even if the guest dies in a foreign land, he still loves.
Artists are painful, they struggle to spend their lives, in the contradiction between reality and ideals, unwilling and can not compromise, when the feelings surging in the heart can not end well, extreme emotions can only gush out with the work, and ordinary ordinary people, when they are born, old and sick and die, they are powerless to scream and can only endure.
Maybe that's the difference between an artist and an ordinary person.