Self-Portrait with Raised Bared Shoulder 1912

Egon Schiele made this oil self-portrait, with a bare shoulder raised, at an unknown date, but you get the feeling he's really laying himself bare, doesn’t he? The way Schiele uses paint, it’s like he’s carving his face out of the canvas, with these thick, urgent strokes. Look at the colors, too – that fleshy pink mixed with sickly greens and blues. It's all about process, you can see the moves! It makes you feel like you’re right there with him in the studio. And then there's that cross-shaped mark on his shoulder – is it a wound, a shadow, or just a weird abstract shape? It doesn’t matter what it is, but it definitely adds to the emotional intensity, the sense of unease. It kind of reminds me of some of the body horror you see in Francis Bacon's work. But really it speaks to something bigger, this idea that art is always an exchange, an ongoing conversation. It shows the potential for art to hold multiple truths at once.