Oskar Kokoschka - vendere e comprare opere
1 March 1886, Pöchlarn (Austria) - 22 February 1980, Montreux (Switzerland)
Oskar Kokoschka was an Austrian graphic artist, sculptor and author. Alongside Egon Schiele, Richard Gerstl and Max Oppenheimer, he was one of Austria's most important Expressionist artists. He mainly painted portraits and landscapes.
Oskar Kokoschka was born into a family of goldsmiths in Pöchlarn (Lower Austria) on 1 March 1886. He was the second son of Gustav Kokoschka, a travelling salesman, and Maria Romana, a forester’s daughter. Initially he attended the Imperial Secondary School in Vienna, where his teacher was Carl Otto Czeschka, before enrolling at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts in 1905. Kokoschka began painting in oil during this period, contributing to the Vienna Art Show for the first time in 1908. He also began painting landscapes. Kokoschka exhibited at the International Art Show in Vienna in 1909. In addition to painting, he worked as a playwright. His drama “Murderer, Hope of Women” - for which he produced drawings - premiered in 1909. Afterwards he sojourned in Switzerland in Berlin. Returning to Vienna in 1911, he met and began a love affair with Alma Mahler, the composer Gustav Mahler's widow. Kokoschka worked as an assistant at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, and began creating his magnum opus, “The Bride of the Wind”, in 1913.
Oskar Kokoschka volunteered as a soldier in 1915 and was wounded.
He took a professorship at the Dresden Art Academy, where he remained from 1919-1926.
This was followed by periods in Vienna, Prague and London, which he adopted as his home in 1938. Oskar Kokoschka’s work was derided as “degenerate art” during the Nazi period.
Kokoschka painted numerous portraits, landscapes images and cities. He founded the School of Seeing as the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in 1953, taking up residence at Lake Geneva.
Kokoschka died near Montreux, Switzerland, on 22 February 1980.
Kokoschka’s works were inspired by Psychological Expressionism. His influences included Vincent van Gogh and Ferdinand Hodler. Historians widely view Kokoschka’s cycle of city and landscape images (“Global Landscapes”) as one of the greatest works of art of the 20th century. Kokoschka attained global recognition during his own lifetime. He participated in numerous expeditions and received multiple awards, K the Grand Austrian State Prize for Fine Arts in 1955.