Self Portrait as St. Sebastian 1914

Egon Schiele made this drawing, Self Portrait as St. Sebastian, with ink on paper. It is a line drawing of the artist as the martyred saint, pierced with arrows. Schiele, oh man, what a tortured soul. Can you imagine him sitting there, wrestling with his demons, finding a way to express his inner turmoil through this self-portrait? He's using his body, his own image, as a canvas for exploring pain, vulnerability, and maybe even a touch of theatricality. The linear quality is so raw, so exposed, it's like he's flaying himself on paper. He must have made thousands of drawings. That pose, the way he twists and contorts his body, reminds me of other artists who pushed the boundaries of figuration, like Jenny Saville or even Francis Bacon. They all seem to be searching for some deeper truth about the human condition, using the body as a site of inquiry. Artists talk to each other across time. Schiele was a tortured guy and knew a few things about suffering. His work reminds me that artists are always pushing the limits of what painting and drawing can do.