Oskar Kokoschka at the Belvedere – Vienna

Schloss Belvedere – Vienna

Oskar Kokoschka. Dreaming Lad – Enfant Terrible
Lower Belvedere
24 January to 12 May

The Belvedere presents the early work of Oskar Kokoschka, the leading exponent of Austrian Expressionism, for the first time in the form of an intermedia exhibition.

Selbstbildnis 1917
Öl auf Leinwand, 79 x 63 cm / Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal
© Fondation Oskar Kokoschka/VBK, Wien 2008

Guided by the linear style of the “Vienna Secession”, Kokoschka gained international renown very early with his graphic and literary contributions to the avant-garde magazine “Der Sturm”. At the same time, he attracted attention with his painterly portraits in which he rather concentrated on the rendering of his sitters’ subjective moods than on the depiction of their outward appearance.

Doppelbildnis Hans und Erika Tietze, 1909
Öl auf Leinwand, 76,5 x 136,2 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York
© Fondation Oskar Kokoschka/VBK, Wien 2008

The 145 exhibits embrace the entirety of Kokoschka’s artistic means of expression and illustrate his development from the “dreaming boy” of Art Nouveau to the expressive “enfant terrible” of European art history. Besides the first works dating from his time as a student, such as the drawings of Lilith Lang in the nude, the display also includes examples of Kokoschka’s literary work. The paintings owned by the Belvedere are complemented by such prominent loans as Father Hirsch, the Double Portrait of Hans Tietze and Erika Tietze, the Still Life with Putto and Rabbit, and Friends.
The show also includes masterpieces by Auguste Rodin and George Minne, who had a lasting impact on Kokoschka’s art.

Oskar Kokoschka, Schlafende Frau (aus: Die träumenden Knaben), 1907/1908
Farblithografie 23,5 x 21,5 cm / Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz
© Fondation Oskar Kokoschka/VBK, Wien 2008

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