Richard Gerstl
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Gerstl´s Self-Portrait Before a Blue Background from 1902–1904 is probably one of the most unusual works of Austrian painting at the beginning of the 20th century: Gerstl does not present himself as a painter in his studio, as is customary in traditional self-portraits by artists. Rather, he rises to an almost messiah-like figure, baring his lean upper body and with a loincloth wrapped around his hips. His body seems to illuminate the surrounding space, bathed in a beautiful blue; he radiates and becomes an auratic figure with the suggestion of a halo. Art as a substitute for religion is a typical phenomenon of modernism, in which the artist can be seen as the creator of an independent world.
The abstract color treatment of the background and the barely elaborated loincloth contrast with the realistic rendering of the face. The painter rigidly gazes directly at you, but at the same time this gaze seems to lose itself esoterically in the distance.
Gerstl's passionate and unhappily ending love for the married Mathilde Schönberg was still ahead of him at the time of the creation of this self-portrait. But the artist was already on his way to modernism passionately searching for the truth, struggling with his own sexuality, he lost himself in the end. The liberated, naked truth can be fatal. Richard Gerstl took that risk.
We present today's painting thanks to the Leopold Museum in Vienna, where until 20 January 2020 you can visit the exhibition of the first Austrian Expressionist, Richard Gerstl.