Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude opens at the Courtauld Gallery on the 23rd October and is the first major museum exhibition solely dedicated to the Vienesse artist’s work in the UK.

The exhibition focuses solely on Schiele and his nude subject which played a seminal role in his short but prolific career.

Schiele is known for his sexually provocative images that reinvented the classical depiction of the human figure. He challenged outmoded conventions of the nude by depicting the male and female figure in contorted poses and an unidealised form.

Themes that run throughout the exhibition are those of self-expression, procreation, sexuality and eroticism, acted out by various models- from himself to his sister, male friends, his wife and lovers, prostitutes, pregnant mothers and babies.

The images are often sexually explicit and erotically charged; Schiele was the first artist to address both human sexual anatomy and sexual psychology frankly through figure drawing. The explicit nature of Schiele’s artistic pursuits eventually criminalized him, he was imprisoned for two months in 1912 for contravening public decency.

The Radical Nude showcases thirty eight of his nude works that show Schiele’s talent for an explicit and raw depiction of not only the human form but human sexuality.

The exhibition runs from 23rd October until the 18th January at the Courtauld Gallery, London
More information can be found here