Oskar Kokoschka

Oskar Kokoschka boldly transitioned from a decorative style to a daring, vibrant Expressionism. Coming of age in turn-of-the-century Vienna, he delved into Sigmund Freud's analysis of dreams and the unconscious, while also expressing the growing anxiety of the bourgeois class regarding the modern age. His disorienting compositions, characterized by bold brushstrokes and strong colors, directly confronted viewers.

Oskar Kokoschka's stylistic freedom and his belief in art's power to raise awareness of contemporary issues set a precedent for artists ranging from the Abstract Expressionists in the mid-20th century to the Neo-Expressionists of the late 20th century. 

Biography of Oskar Kokoschka

Oskar Kokoschka was born in 1886 in the small town of Pöchlarn, 100 kilometers west of Vienna. His father, Gustav, came from a German patrician family of goldsmiths and worked as a traveling salesman, while his mother, Maria Romana, was the daughter of a forester from Styria in southeast Austria.

Kokoschka described his childhood as very happy, recalling how his father gave him books that shaped him both as a man and an artist. Among these books were an abbreviated version of the Odyssey and the Orbis Sensualium Pictus, a 1658 textbook for children by Czech educator John Amos Comenius. These works sparked his appreciation for classical literature and the arts.

However, the reality of the artist's childhood was likely more challenging. His father struggled with his business, often moving the family to smaller flats farther from the village center. Eventually, his father went bankrupt and relocated the family to Vienna when Oskar was just three years old. Oskar had a younger sister and an older brother, but he died when Oskar was an infant.

In Vienna, Oskar Kokoschka attended the Realschule, a secondary school with a focus on science and language. Despite this curriculum, Kokoschka's passion lay in the arts and classical literature. Encouraged by a teacher, he entered the Kunstgewerbeschule, the University of Applied Arts of Vienna, at the age of eighteen. Many of the school's teachers were members of the Vienna Secession, an art movement that initially embraced Art Nouveau and Jugendstil styles.

At the Kunstgewerbeschule, the artist honed his drawing skills and studied various crafts, including bookbinding and lithography. His teacher, Carl Otto Czeschka, encouraged him to develop his unique style, leading to his earliest oil paintings in 1905 and 1906.

In 1907, Kokoschka joined the Wiener Werkstätte, an alliance of artists and designers at the forefront of modern design. As a member, he worked as a graphic designer, creating postcards, bookplates, and drawings for children, frequently incorporating the human figure as a decorative motif.

Gustav Klimt, the leading figure of the Secessionist movement, recognized Oskar Kokoschka as "the greatest talent among the younger generation" and included him in his 1908 exhibition at the Kunstschau. Klimt chose to showcase Kokoschka's work, The Dreaming Boys, a poem illustrated with eight lithographs. The poem, which explored the budding sexuality of adolescent boys, caused a scandal but secured Kokoschka's place in the following year's exhibition.

During this time, Kokoschka met Adolf Loos, a Viennese architect who became his patron and advocate. Kokoschka later acknowledged that he "owe[d] everything" to Loos. However, in 1909, Kokoschka was expelled from the Kunstgewerbeschule after his lurid and violent play, Mörder Hoffnung der Frauen (Murderer, the Hope of Women), inciting a riot.

With Loos' support, the artist traveled to Switzerland in 1910, where he painted landscapes and portraits of aristocrats suffering from tuberculosis at the Leysin sanatorium. The artist also contributed drawings to the progressive journal Der Sturm, which promoted German Expressionism and other avant-garde art, some illustrating his notorious drama Murderer, the Hope of Women. 

By 1911, Oskar Kokoschka had established himself as a notorious artist, known for shocking the staid bourgeois society in which he moved. His notoriety grew through exhibitions in Vienna and Berlin that included depictions of young, nude girls, numerous portrait commissions from wealthy Viennese, his involvement with the avant-garde journal "Der Sturm", and his bohemian lifestyle. The artist's controversial reputation even reached Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who reportedly said that he "wanted to break every bone in Kokoschka's body" after seeing an exhibition of his work.

During World War I, Oskar Kokoschka sustained severe injuries: a bullet passed through his head in Ukraine, and he was bayoneted in the chest in Russia. Miraculously, he survived both incidents but suffered from migraines and hallucinations for many years afterward. During his convalescence in Vienna and later in Dresden, Kokoschka wrote several plays, including Orpheus und Eurydike (1918), which drew on his war experiences.

During the 1920s, Oskar Kokoschka served as a professor at the Dresden Academy and traveled extensively across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, focusing primarily on landscapes. In 1927, he held his largest solo exhibition up to that time at the Zurich Kunsthaus. Between 1931 and 1933, Kokoschka frequently visited Paris, where he painted several portraits of American dancer Mary Meerson.

In 1934, amid the rise of Nazi power, Kokoschka traveled to Prague, where he met Olda, who would become his future wife. In Prague, he was commissioned to paint a portrait of Tomáš G. Masaryk, the president of Czechoslovakia. The two men developed a friendship and often discussed the 17th-century philosopher Comenius. In 1935, Kokoschka acquired Czech citizenship.

In 1937, the Nazis labeled Kokoschka a "Degenerate" artist, including The Tempest (1913) and several other works in their infamous Degenerate Art Exhibition. In response, Kokoschka created the defiant Portrait of a Degenerate Artist (1937) during one of his stays at Olda's parents' house outside Prague. By this time, Oskar Kokoschka was a declared enemy of the Germans. Following the Munich Agreement, he and Olda fled Czechoslovakia to escape the imminent invasion, relocating to London. There, Kokoschka participated in the Twentieth Century German Art exhibition, showcasing 22 of his works.

From London, the couple moved to Cornwall, where Kokoschka painted a series of landscapes. These works often contained political allegories that critiqued the inaction of England and other European countries in the face of the advancing Nazis and the dire plight of refugees.

In the early 1940s, Kokoschka and Olda relocated again, this time to Scotland and North Wales. During this period, Kokoschka continued to paint landscapes, frequently using crayons. In 1943, they returned to London, and by the end of World War II, Kokoschka had obtained British citizenship.

Kokoschka received significant recognition in 1947 and 1948 with a major retrospective, first in Basel and then in Zurich, followed by an invitation to the Venice Biennale, where he represented Austria with 16 paintings. He told his sister that the success of these exhibitions restored his "joie de vivre, faith in humanity, and hope for the future."

Having achieved financial stability, Oskar Kokoschka enjoyed a series of exhibitions across Europe and the United States, continuing to travel with Olda and paint portraits and landscapes. In 1949, Count Antoine Sielern, a fellow Austrian émigré and renowned scholar with an impressive collection of Old Masters and modern works, commissioned Kokoschka to create a ceiling painting for his residence. Kokoschka completed The Prometheus Triptych in the summer of 1950, which he considered his most significant work up to that point. The painting served as a critical commentary on the growing influence of science and technology and the consequences of "man's intellectual arrogance."

In 1953, Oskar Kokoschka moved to Switzerland and established an annual seminar at the Summer Academy for Visual Arts in Salzburg, Austria, called the School of Seeing. His goal was to teach young artists to "connect the spiritual past of European people to the present, individual experience," rather than simply adhering to trends or following a formula.

In 1954, Kokoschka created a second mythological triptych, "Thermopylae", for Hamburg University. During the 1950s and 1960s, he increasingly engaged in lithography and worked on designing tapestries, scenography, and costumes for the theatre. His adopted country of England honored him with significant accolades: in 1960, Oxford University awarded him an honorary doctorate, and the Tate Gallery held his first British retrospective in 1962.

Kokoschka's later paintings featured a brighter palette but lacked the intense, nervous brushstrokes characteristic of his earlier Expressionist works. Despite deteriorating eyesight, as depicted in his 1973 canvas "Mal'Occhio", Kokoschka continued to paint into his 90s. He also left behind numerous interviews, a volume of collected writings, and an autobiography titled "My Life" (1974). The artist passed away in 1980 at a clinic in Montreux, Switzerland.

The Art of Oskar Kokoschka

Like many Expressionists, Oskar Kokoschka rejected the harmonious effects of color and form, opting instead for tempestuous compositions characterized by clashing colors and distorted angles. His work aimed to evoke intense emotions and challenge the complacency and conservatism of bourgeois society.

Kokoschka’s focus on portrait and self-portrait painting set him apart from other Expressionists. Rather than striving for realistic depictions of his subjects, he sought to reveal their — and his own — inner psyche through exaggerated features, dynamic gestures, and bold brushstrokes.

A vocal critic of the Nazis and Fascism, and deeply concerned with the plight of refugees from these regimes, Kokoschka believed that art had the power to confront such authoritarian forces. Consequently, he never fully embraced abstraction like some of his avant-garde peers. For Kokoschka, art needed to retain a connection to the tangible world to be as impactful as possible.

Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler: A Turbulent Affair and Artistic Inspiration

In 1912, Oskar Kokoschka met Alma Mahler, the widow of the famed composer Gustav Mahler. They embarked on a torrid affair that would become a significant source of inspiration and hardship for Kokoschka. Despite his numerous marriage proposals, Mahler always declined, eventually leaving him for her former lover, architect Walter Gropius (later of Bauhaus fame).

During their relationship, Kokoschka painted numerous portraits of the couple, including the Double Portrait of Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler (1912-1913), where Alma is shown in a striking red gown. One of Kokoschka's most renowned works, The Tempest (or The Bride of the Wind) (1913-14), depicts the lovers engulfed in a storm of dynamic brushstrokes. Kokoschka dedicated this painting and nearly 450 other pieces to Alma. After Mahler had an abortion, a heartbroken Kokoschka enlisted in the army in 1915 to fight in World War I, selling The Tempest to purchase his own horse. 

In 1918, still grappling with Alma Mahler's departure, Oskar Kokoschka commissioned Munich doll maker Hermine Moos to create a life-size doll modeled after Alma's body and facial features. He provided Moos with detailed dimensions, drawings, and specific instructions, writing, "Please permit my sense of touch to take pleasure in those places where layers of fat or muscle suddenly give way to a sinewy covering of skin. For the first layer (inside) please use fine, curly horsehair; you must buy an old sofa or something similar; and have the horsehair disinfected. Then, over that, a layer of pouches stuffed with down, cotton wool for the seat and breasts. The point of all this for me is an experience which I must be able to embrace." 

Despite his detailed specifications, Kokoschka was dissatisfied with the final result. Nonetheless, he dressed the doll and took it out in public, sparking much speculation and gossip. The doll later served as a model for several of Kokoschka's paintings. In a dramatic gesture during a raucous party, Kokoschka decapitated the doll and poured a bottle of wine over it, symbolically exorcising his obsession with Alma Mahler.