(Pöchlarn 1886–1980 Villeneuve)
‘Die Spitzenklöpplerin’, 1933, monogrammed OK, oil on canvas, 65.5 x 80 cm, framed, (K)

‘Die Spitzenklöpplerin’ will be included in the second volume of the catalogue raisonné by Johann Winkler/Katharina Erling, Oskar Kokoschka, Die Gemälde 1930–197.

Provenance:
Leicester Gallery, London
Galleria Annunciata, Milan
E & A Silberman Galleries, New York (sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 20 November 1968, lot 48)

... This listing of some of the outstanding images of people is intended to give some idea of the remarkable range of the artist’s differing representational styles, and it seeks to do this in two ways. On the one hand, there is a unique aspect to his work, in that both the artist’s formal and expressive languages vary so considerably depending on the model, and each person is thus drawn in a style and with an associated painterly structure that accords with his specific nature. But it would be too simplistic to see this as the sole reason for this extraordinary variability. Of course, it also says something about the vivid, experimental ebb and flow of the artist’s formal means. It is evident, too, that this multiplicity was the pathway to developing his art. It had reached a decisive phase by the early 1920s.
From then onwards, it remained a goal of Kokoschka’s to capture the outward form of people and humanity based on their physicality, and yet in a manner that was far removed from external truth to nature, both in respect of individual details as well as the totality of their appearance...
Fritz Novotny, excerpt from Oskar Kokoschka zum 85. Geburtstag, Vienna 1971.