Vorstandskanzlei der k. u. k. Konsumanstalt Wien 1917

Egon Schiele made this drawing of the 'Vorstandskanzlei der k. u. k. Konsumanstalt Wien', the Vienna office of the Imperial and Royal Consumer Institute, with pencil on paper. The drawing shows an interior in stark lines, all angles, and edges. See how he doesn’t soften anything. He goes straight to the point. His nervous lines show the room is both real and unreal, fixed and unfixed, all at the same time. I love how Schiele uses these straight lines to make depth in the image, and make the space both flat and spatial. It’s like he’s drawing not just what he sees, but also what he feels about the room. The way Schiele draws reminds me of Klimt, who did landscapes with the same feeling. They both embrace the ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed or definitive meanings.