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23/4/2014

Oskar Kokoschka

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg

The Kunstmuseum is celebrating its 20th birthday. It is marking the occasion with the exhibition Oskar Kokoschka. Humanist and Rebel, which is primarily devoted to the portraits by this extraordninary modern artist. The show recalls the start of the Kunstmuseum’s success story in 1994 with a retrospective on the work of the French artist Fernand Léger. Even before then, namely between 1952 and 1967, the former chairman of Volkswagen Heinrich Nordhoff initiated much-noticed exhibitions on Franz Marc, Lovis Corinth and Vincent van Gogh.

The golden thread through the exhibition is Kokoschka himself, a protagonist of Vi- ennese modernism (born 1886 in Pöchlarn near Vienna, died 1980 in Montreux, Swit- zerland). In his paintings we meet the people he knew and his view of humanity and society, thus providing a unique personal perspective of the 20th century and its ma- jor occurrences. With his distinctive expressive approach to painting and dramatic use of brushstrokes Kokoschka shaped a style that suddenly makes a very contem- porary appearance. Circa 55 paintings, 138 works on paper and numerous documents tell about how he developed his artistic talent based on portraiture.

An exhibition in collaboration with the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam and our guest curator Beatrice von Bormann from Amsterdam.

In Oskar Kokoschka’s (1886–1980) portraits we encounter one of the most extraordinary artists of the 20th century. His life and work were shaped by the emergence of the avant- garde amidst the social and political turmoil of his day. Kokoschka himself represents the golden thread through this exhibition in the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg: the people he knew and his view of humanity and society. Over and above their artistic quality, Kokoschka’s portraits reveal him to be a true humanist and rebel. With his distinctive expressive painting style and dramatic use of brushstrokes he was furthermore a decisive influence on the so- called Neue Wilde of the 1980s.

The Kunstmuseum is celebrating its 20th birthday with this special exhibition. It ties onto the museum’s opening in 1994 with works by Fernand Léger and likewise recalls the major art events extending back to the young city of Wolfsburg’s early post-war period. Between 1952 and 1967, Heinrich Nordhoff, former chairman of Volkswagen, initiated much-noticed exhibitions on Franz Marc, Lovis Corinth and Vincent van Gogh in addition to thematic shows on German and French painting as well as Japanese woodcuts.

When the young Oskar Kokoschka entered the stage of art in Vienna with his passionately restless works, he encountered the milieu of Viennese modernism. Arriving in Berlin in 1910, he was actively participated in Herwarth Walden’s magazine Der Sturm with his prints, exhibited together with artists from the Berlin Secession and created a stir with his plays. As a painter, printmaker and author Oskar Kokoschka advanced not only to become one of the most prominent proponents of Viennese modernism but also one of the most idiosyncratic advocates of Expressionism.

Oskar Kokoschka. Humanist and Rebel is oriented on the development of this exceptional oeuvre. The starting point of the exhibition encompassing 55 paintings and 138 works on paper in Kokoschka’s time at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna (1905−1908), his work for the Wiener Werkstätte and contributions to the Kunstschau 1908, which is still regarded today as a pioneering event in the history Viennese modernism. The spirit of a new beginning and the avant-garde influenced by such personalities as Gustav Klimt, Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler and Arthur Schnitzler exuded throughout Vienna. In 1909, the multitalented Oskar Kokoschka caused a scandal with his one-act play Murderer, the Hope of Women, and subsequently shaved his head to protest the hefty criticism directed at him and his work. This was followed by Kokoschka’s early portraits, most of which were produced in Vienna between 1909 and 1914 thanks to the intercession of Adolf Loos, among them of friends such as the journalist and satirist Karl Kraus and the actor Karl Etlinger. In his expressive pictorial inventions from this time, which are oriented on the person and his surroundings, he rebelled against the predominant historicism and the ornament-governed Art Nouveau. His years in Berlin from 1910 to 1916, during which he frequently travelled to Vienna, are distinguished by the collaboration with Herwarth Walden and his magazine Der Sturm. When Kokoschka went to Berlin in 1910 he became acquainted with Franz Marc and met with such artists as Else Lasker-Schüler, Rudolf Blümner, Peter Baum, Richard Dehmel and Alfred Kerr, whose portraits can be found in the exhibition. His stormy affair with Alma Mahler, the widow of the composer Gustav Mahler, between 1912 and 1914 inspired numerous paintings, prints and drawings in addition to his first pieces on the theme of music. But when Alma Mahler aborted their joint child and two of them separated, Kokoschka fell into a deep crisis and volunteered for active service in the Austrian army.

Kokoschka was seriously wounded in World War I. After recovering, he accepted a professorship in Dresden, where he taught from 1916 to 1923. During this time, Kokoschka reinvented himself both artistically and personally. As a means of overcoming the separation, he commissioned a live-sized doll modeled after Alma Mahler in 1918. This curious object also served as the motifs for a series of portraits. The most significant change resulting from the interruption of artistic activity caused by the war was his transition from a painting style based largely on drawing in which the line dominated to a manner of painting in which form was constructed from the starting point of color.

Kokoschka left Dresden in 1923 in order to travel through Europe and North Africa. He returned to Vienna in 1931 after these extensive trips on which he painted numerous animal pictures, but he commuted back and forth between there and Paris during the next several years. He left Austria for good in 1934 because of the political situation, fleeing to Prague, where he would meet his future wife Olda. Here and during his years of exile in London Kokoschka produced largely allegorical portraits of women and addition to numerous political works. Over 400 of his works were confiscated from German museums by the National Socialists and were destroyed in parts. Kokoschka himself, whose work was denounced at the Munich Entartete Kunst exhibition, was declared “Art Enemy # 1.” In 1953 Kokoschka moved with his wife Olda, who he married in London in 1941, to Villeneuve, Switzerland.

The exhibition concludes with the artist’s view of himself, the group of self-portraits produced between 1906 and 1972: »And when I made self-portraits ..., it was only to ascertain: What is the human being really? The human being is not merely the surface, not that part that can be photographed.«

The exhibition is supported by Volkswagen Financial Services AG.

The exhibition catalogue is on sale for 38 Euros and can also be ordered in our online shop.

Image: Oskar Kokoschka, The Doll and Hermine Moos, 1919. Black-and-white phorograph, 18 x 23.8 cm. Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, Oskar Kokoschka-Zentrum, permanent loan by Oskar Kokoschka Dokumentation Pöchlarn / Unk- nown photrographer © Fondation Oskar Kokoschka / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014

Press conference on April 24, 11.15 am

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
Hollerplatz 1 - 38440 Wolfsburg
Opening hours and admission
Tuesday - Sunday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Monday closed
Opening hours during public holidays
1st May, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Ascension Day, 28 May 2014, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Pentecost 8./9. June 2014, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Admission: EUR 8,-
Concessions: EUR 5,-
family ticket: EUR 12,-
annual ticket: EUR 30,-
groups of 12 persons or more: EUR 5,- per person
school parties: several offers by arrangement
guided tours in English and French: phone +49 (0) 5361 266920

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