Oskar Kokoschka

Kokoschka, Oskar 

Born Mar. 1, 1886, in Pöchlarn, Lower Austria. Austrian painter and graphic artist.

Kokoschka studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna from 1904 to 1909. He worked in Vienna, Dresden (1918–24, becoming a professor at the Academy of Arts there in 1920), Prague (1934–38, professor at the Academy of Arts), London (1938–53), and Salzburg (director of the International Summer Academy for the Study of Creative Arts from 1954).

A representative of expressionism, Kokoschka sought to express a morbid and tragic sense of life in such works as The Storm (1914, Public Art Collection, Basel) and The Power of Music (1918–20, Dresden Picture Gallery). These works reflect a feeling of nervous tension and are distinguished by an abrupt and impulsive manner of execution. At the same time, many of the artist’s landscapes, which are generally representations of cities, are marked by lyricism and rich colors (Venice, 1924; Salzburg, 1950—both in the New Pinakothek, Munich). Kokoschka’s portraits, for example, those of A. Forel (1908, Kunsthalle, Manheim) and I. M. Maiskii (1942–43, Tate Gallery, London), reveal his keen insight into the characters of his sitters. In the Thermopylae Triptych (1954, at the University of Hamburg), Kokoschka’s antifascist views are reflected. Kokoschka was also a poet and playwright.

REFERENCE

Wingler, H. M. Oskar Kokoschka. Munich, 1956.