Existential Authenticity on Egon Schiele’s Works in Terms of Heidegger’s Thought

The notion of existentialism and existential authenticity in the philosophy of Heidegger is explained as a particular individual subject, encountering the ultimate emptiness of life, experiences the anxiety and lives at present (being there), and Dasein, in that way, creates the world through the radical leaps of freedom. Also, considering Schiele’s Works, one is faced with the states of face and body that can be explained along with existentialist thought. Based on the claim that, thorough picturing the subjects, he transcends the reality to illustrate the genuine life, this study puts forward the question of how it is possible that the manifestation of states in his works can be interpreted along the notion of existentialism and existential authenticity as developed by Heidegger. To answer such a crucial question, using the descriptive-analytic method, and based upon valid references, it is concluded that the various states of face and body in the paintings of Schiele strongly suggest a sense of anxiety, thrown projection, and death-awareness, which are comparable with the main elements of Heidegger’s existentialism. He has worked during the flourishing time of existentialism, so the claim of some parallel between them is acceptable and worth examining. The significance of such inquiry is to connect existentialism and artworks, which can be regarded as a suitable method for discovering similar correspondence between philosophical works and artworks.
    Existentialism resonates with Heidegger’s thought in such a way that it seems to detach human beings from the normative comfort and stability of public life, leaving us alone to create and choose our unique meanings and values in the background of ‘nothingness.’ The authenticity of Heidegger’s existential analysis lies in his unique conception of human existence as Dasein. According to existentialists, human existence is interpreted as a specific and autonomous subject that can freely separate itself from the social, cultural, and historical conditions. Contrary to the way in which existentialism sometimes depicts - that human beings are entirely free to choose - Heidegger’s conception of facticity is that the parameters within which human freedom is situated are limited. The existentialist interpretation of Heidegger’s authenticity is mainly due to his interpretation of the temporality of human beings. For Heidegger, the significance of existence that manifests itself in human actions is temporality.
   Moreover, Dasein points to the fact that human beings have always been created with “being-in-the-the-world,” indicating that human beings are already situated in the world. By this interpretation, we are not independent subjects but beings who are tangibly involved in a particular historical situation. We grow through the process of socialization, whereby we have the opportunity to interpret ourselves in terms of the common actions of our historicity. For Heidegger, history determines the structure of existence so that the authentic being is never an isolated individual. (S)he can never revolt or overcome his/her socio-historical situation because a human being is always a historical being.
   For Heidegger, our public world forms the ground of social action in which we are “thrown.” As a result, “others” predetermine our understanding of Being and control the context of meaning and understanding for us. In this sense, the world of others provides possibilities for who we are and what we are. Dasein is thrown into the world, which means, in a way, a person is not always the product of the time, place, and culture in which he is born, lives, and dies. In other words, when we are thrown, we are situated in a set of conditions, and freedom consists of accepting the possibilities of being thrown. This duality exists in every moment of our being and affects our ability to be authentic. Dasein has indeed surrendered to himself and his capacity to be, but as being-in-the-world. As it is thrown, it is dependent on a world and really exists with others. For Heidegger, authenticity does not require exceptional effort or order, but rather a change in attention, a recapture of ourselves from the way we usually fall into our daily ways of life. This is about how we cope with the world in our daily activities. Dasein inevitably moves between our daily encounters with them and a glimpse of our more genuine and unique possibilities. The challenge is to bring ourselves back from the loss so that we can become our true selves.
    Heidegger emphasizes individuality and its importance in society to deal with living authentically and explains other elements such as anxiety, death-awareness, projection, the voice of conscience, and being-with-another in this regard. The author of this piece shows how the concept of authenticity, as explained in Heidegger’s early work, can be examined in art, because, according to Heidegger, the great artworks are the occurrence of truth, that is, the occurrence of the truth of beings, and indeed art is the way in which truth occurs, and the origin of the work of art in the sense in which Heidegger considers is not the artist but the art itself. In fact, the role of the work of art from Heidegger’s stance is to clarify a pre-existing world.
Egon Schiele represents the world not as it is, but as a new world in which the truth of existence can be attained. The anxious states of the faces, the elongation of the human limbs, the color contrast in Schiele's works, have revealed that these beings are inseparable from the world of their owner, according to which Schiele's works can be read with the themes of existence in Heidegger's works. By claiming that Schiele's way of depicting his subjects goes beyond reality to depict the original life, we raise the question of how it is possible that the representation of moods in Egon Schiele's works can be read in the sense of Heidegger's originality?
   Thus understood, this study clarifies the relationship between existentialism and existential authenticity and the paintings of Egon Schiele in three stages: In the first part, the concept of existential authenticity is examined through the discussion of Dasein. It is discussed that to achieve such authenticity, we must encounter human truth, thought, and reflection on the unique human existence. In the second part, the states illustrated in the painting of Egon Schiele are described, through which one can understand the concept of existentialist authenticity, which is not only a work of art, but also reflects the inner aspect of the painter himself. In a way, he presents a dual meaning and structure of the real self through his works. Drawing on Egon Schiele, this article aims to analyze how truth and existence are decomposed in painting to reflect the authenticity. In the third part, components of the existential authenticity in Heidegger’s thought are compared with an instance of the works of Egon Schiele, and each one is explained based on analysis along with a reading of the concept of existential authenticity.