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Biographies
KOKOSCHKA : ONE OF AUSTRIA'S MAIN ARTISTS
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Oscar Kokoschka (1886-1980) was one of Austria's major artists of the 20th Century alongside Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. He was born at Pöchlarn on the Danube in 1886. His father was Czech and came from a well known family of Prague goldsmiths. His mother came from the mountain region of Styria, and claimed to have second sight. Oskar was the second of their four sons; when he was still a child the family moved to Vienna where his elder brother died in 1891. As a boy, Kokoschka was not particularly attracted to art. He wanted to study chemistry but was recommended for a scholarship at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts by a teacher who had been impressed by his drawings. He entered the School in 1905, the year during which he started to paint in oils, and in 1907 he found work at the Wiener Werkstätte. Soon he began to expand his activities to literature. Asked to produce a children's book, he wrote his own text, Die Traumenden Knaben (The Dreaming Youths), which was scarcely suitable for the young, but made a good basis for his distinctive illustrations. He also wrote two plays, Sphinx und Strohamann (The Sphinx and the Scarecrow), and Mürder, Hoffnung der Frauen (Murderer, Hope of Women): these are now considered to mark the beginnings of Expressionist theatre in Germany. In 1908 Kokoschka's work was shown in the Kunstschau exhibition in Vienna, which featured the avant-garde group around Klimt. His contributions were a centre of controversy because of their Expressionist violence, and as a result, he was dismissed from the School of Arts and Crafts. In 1909 his work was shown at the second Kunstschau, and his two plays were performed in the little open-air theatre attached to the exhibition buildings. There was a tremendous scandal because of their violence, and their unconventional and apparently irrational structure, and even the Werkstätte would no longer employ him. At one time he managed to survive by betting on his own capacity to drink visitors to Vienna under the table. His chief protector was the pioneer Modernist architect Adolf Loos, who secured portrait commissions for him. One portrait was of the satirical writer Karl Kraus, editor of Die Facket (The Torch). who admitted it was quite possible that his acquaintances would not recognize him though he was certain that those who did not know him would surely detect that he was the sitter for this portrait. In 1910 Kokoschka went to Berlin and was taken up by Herwarth Walden, the energetic owner-editor of Der Sturm, who commissioned him to do title-page drawings for the magazine and used one for almost every issue. He was also given a contract by the powerful dealer Paul Cassirer. In 1911 he returned to Vienna and was appointed as assistant teacher at the very school which had dismissed him. He had a show at the Hagenbund in Vienna, of which the opening reception was attended by Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, who exclaimed indignantly: 'This fellow's bones ought to be broken in his body!' In 1911 he began a passionate affair with Alma Mahler, the widow of the great composer, an elegant society beauty considerably older than himself. In 1912, he was able to give up teaching and showed his works at the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, which united the whole German-speaking avant garde, and with the Blaue Reiter in Munich. He then taught at a smart Viennese girls' school whose headmistress was known for her progressive views, some of the parents objected so strongly that the Austrian government actually banned him from teaching. When war broke out,Adolf Loos used his influence to have him appointed Lieutenant in an exclusive regiment of dragoons with a particularly glamorous uniform. At the beginning of 1915 Kokoschka was seriously wounded - and briefly taken prisoner - in Galicia: he suffered a head injury and a bayonet wound to the lung. He spent a period of convalescence in Vienna, but was then sent to the Isonzo Front, where his health soon broke down completely. He went to Stockholm to consult a brain specialist and then to Dresden to try and recover his health. His anguish was as much mental as physical, and was perhaps connected with his residual feelings for Alma Mahler whom he had left some months earlier. After the end of the war the political situation in Dresden was very unstable and Kokoschka formed part of a small, left-wing bohemian group. In 1919 he was officially appointed Professor at the Dresden Academy, and this post brought with it a beautiful house and studio. Outside Dresden, his reputation continued to rise.In 1922 Kokoschka was invited to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. His health had now improved and he was becoming restless. He resigned his post at the Dresden Academy in 1924 and decided to travel abroad. He went all over Europe, and also to North Africa, Egypt, Turkey and Palestine. In 1931 he had a show at the Kunsthalle in Mannheim which Cassirer's successors brought to the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris, where it did well with the Parisian public but Kokoschka then wanted more independence from his dealers. In 1932 Kokoschka once again showed at the Venice Biennale, but now his reception was stormy. Mussolini made it plain that he disliked Kokoschka's art, and the pro-Nazi press in Germany seized the opportunity to attack him. By 1933 his finances were severely strained, and he left Paris for the provinces and then went to Vienna to be with his mother.After her death later that year he went to Prague and took Czech citizenship. The Austrian government tried to lure him back by offering him the Directorship of the School of Arts and Crafts, and in 1937 he was the subject of a major retrospective at the Osterreiches Museum für Kunst und Industrie while his work was also on show that year in the Degenerate Art Exhibition in Munich - at the same time more than four hundred of his works were removed from German museums. In Prague he had met Olda Pavlovska, who was later to become his wife. Sensing that Prague was no longer a safe refuge, Kokoschka left for England in September 1938. Facing financial difficulties, he and his wife moved briefly to Polperro in Cornwall before returning to London a year later. The next year, however, they returned to London, a city where he did not feel at ease.
Things changed in 1945 when he received a symbolic tribute in war-battered Vienna: an exhibition shared with Klimt and Schiele, both long dead. In 1947 there was a large Kokoschka retrospective at the Kunsthalle in Berne, and in 1952 a room was devoted to his work at the 26th Venice Biennale, Kokoschka had become a British citizen in 1947, but was not eager to remain in a country which he felt had ignored him. In 1953 he began to run his School of Seeing at the Internationale Sommerakademie für Bildende Kunst in Salzburg before settling permanently at Villeneuve on Lake Geneva. Though once again an extremely celebrated and respected artist, he however failed to impose himself as a major figure in the post-war art world and remained a rather marginal figure until his death in 1980.
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Oscar Kokoschka (1886-1980) was one of Austria's major artists of the 20th Century alongside Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. He was born at Pöchlarn on the Danube in 1886. His father was Czech and came from a well known family of Prague goldsmiths. His mother came from the mountain region of Styria, and claimed to have second sight. Oskar was the second of their four sons; when he was still a child the family moved to Vienna where his elder brother died in 1891. As a boy, Kokoschka was not particularly attracted to art. He wanted to study chemistry but was recommended for a scholarship at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts by a teacher who had been impressed by his drawings. He entered the School in 1905, the year during which he started to paint in oils, and in 1907 he found work at the Wiener Werkstätte. Soon he began to expand his activities to literature. Asked to produce a children's book, he wrote his own text, Die Traumenden Knaben (The Dreaming Youths), which was scarcely suitable for the young, but made a good basis for his distinctive illustrations. He also wrote two plays, Sphinx und Strohamann (The Sphinx and the Scarecrow), and Mürder, Hoffnung der Frauen (Murderer, Hope of Women): these are now considered to mark the beginnings of Expressionist theatre in Germany. In 1908 Kokoschka's work was shown in the Kunstschau exhibition in Vienna, which featured the avant-garde group around Klimt. His contributions were a centre of controversy because of their Expressionist violence, and as a result, he was dismissed from the School of Arts and Crafts. In 1909 his work was shown at the second Kunstschau, and his two plays were performed in the little open-air theatre attached to the exhibition buildings. There was a tremendous scandal because of their violence, and their unconventional and apparently irrational structure, and even the Werkstätte would no longer employ him. At one time he managed to survive by betting on his own capacity to drink visitors to Vienna under the table. His chief protector was the pioneer Modernist architect Adolf Loos, who secured portrait commissions for him. One portrait was of the satirical writer Karl Kraus, editor of Die Facket (The Torch). who admitted it was quite possible that his acquaintances would not recognize him though he was certain that those who did not know him would surely detect that he was the sitter for this portrait. In 1910 Kokoschka went to Berlin and was taken up by Herwarth Walden, the energetic owner-editor of Der Sturm, who commissioned him to do title-page drawings for the magazine and used one for almost every issue. He was also given a contract by the powerful dealer Paul Cassirer. In 1911 he returned to Vienna and was appointed as assistant teacher at the very school which had dismissed him. He had a show at the Hagenbund in Vienna, of which the opening reception was attended by Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, who exclaimed indignantly: 'This fellow's bones ought to be broken in his body!' In 1911 he began a passionate affair with Alma Mahler, the widow of the great composer, an elegant society beauty considerably older than himself. In 1912, he was able to give up teaching and showed his works at the Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne, which united the whole German-speaking avant garde, and with the Blaue Reiter in Munich. He then taught at a smart Viennese girls' school whose headmistress was known for her progressive views, some of the parents objected so strongly that the Austrian government actually banned him from teaching. When war broke out,Adolf Loos used his influence to have him appointed Lieutenant in an exclusive regiment of dragoons with a particularly glamorous uniform. At the beginning of 1915 Kokoschka was seriously wounded - and briefly taken prisoner - in Galicia: he suffered a head injury and a bayonet wound to the lung. He spent a period of convalescence in Vienna, but was then sent to the Isonzo Front, where his health soon broke down completely. He went to Stockholm to consult a brain specialist and then to Dresden to try and recover his health. His anguish was as much mental as physical, and was perhaps connected with his residual feelings for Alma Mahler whom he had left some months earlier. After the end of the war the political situation in Dresden was very unstable and Kokoschka formed part of a small, left-wing bohemian group. In 1919 he was officially appointed Professor at the Dresden Academy, and this post brought with it a beautiful house and studio. Outside Dresden, his reputation continued to rise.In 1922 Kokoschka was invited to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. His health had now improved and he was becoming restless. He resigned his post at the Dresden Academy in 1924 and decided to travel abroad. He went all over Europe, and also to North Africa, Egypt, Turkey and Palestine. In 1931 he had a show at the Kunsthalle in Mannheim which Cassirer's successors brought to the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris, where it did well with the Parisian public but Kokoschka then wanted more independence from his dealers. In 1932 Kokoschka once again showed at the Venice Biennale, but now his reception was stormy. Mussolini made it plain that he disliked Kokoschka's art, and the pro-Nazi press in Germany seized the opportunity to attack him. By 1933 his finances were severely strained, and he left Paris for the provinces and then went to Vienna to be with his mother.After her death later that year he went to Prague and took Czech citizenship. The Austrian government tried to lure him back by offering him the Directorship of the School of Arts and Crafts, and in 1937 he was the subject of a major retrospective at the Osterreiches Museum für Kunst und Industrie while his work was also on show that year in the Degenerate Art Exhibition in Munich - at the same time more than four hundred of his works were removed from German museums. In Prague he had met Olda Pavlovska, who was later to become his wife. Sensing that Prague was no longer a safe refuge, Kokoschka left for England in September 1938. Facing financial difficulties, he and his wife moved briefly to Polperro in Cornwall before returning to London a year later. The next year, however, they returned to London, a city where he did not feel at ease.
Things changed in 1945 when he received a symbolic tribute in war-battered Vienna: an exhibition shared with Klimt and Schiele, both long dead. In 1947 there was a large Kokoschka retrospective at the Kunsthalle in Berne, and in 1952 a room was devoted to his work at the 26th Venice Biennale, Kokoschka had become a British citizen in 1947, but was not eager to remain in a country which he felt had ignored him. In 1953 he began to run his School of Seeing at the Internationale Sommerakademie für Bildende Kunst in Salzburg before settling permanently at Villeneuve on Lake Geneva. Though once again an extremely celebrated and respected artist, he however failed to impose himself as a major figure in the post-war art world and remained a rather marginal figure until his death in 1980.
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