Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. Networkers and Rivals

Following a generous donation from Olda Kokoschka, 110 years after Kokoschka's birth, the Oskar Kokoschka Center was founded in 1996 as an independent department within the institute Collection and Archives at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. To mark its 30th anniversary, a series of activities are planned. These include an exhibition on Kokoschka and Egon Schiele at the Kokoschka Museum Pöchlarn (curator for the Angewandte: Anna Stuhlpfarrer). At the same time, an exhibition on the two prominent artists will also be on display at the Schiele Museum in Tulln.

In April 2026, the comprehensive German-English publication Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka: Networkers and Rivals was published by Hirmer Verlag.

Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele are among the most important artists of modernism. Their work had a crucial influence on Austrian Expressionism and still today exerts a great fascination. Both are known as extraordinary networkers, but their relationship with each other and their rivalry has received little attention in the past. When Schiele died in 1918 at the age of only twenty-eight, unsuccessful in his attempts to establish a relationship with Kokoschka, the latter still had six decades ahead of him as a world-renowned artist.

This publication shows how, in the final decade of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Kokoschka and Schiele found their expressive visual language and soon became part of the international art scene. They were accorded great respect but also subjected to massive hostility. Numerous essays in this volume illuminate key themes such as their artistic and intellectual milieu, their radical body images and unsparing self-portraits, their enthusiasm for modern dance, and the capacity of both artists to love and to suffer.

With contributions from Christian Bauer, Aglaja Kempf, Bernadette Reinhold and Anna Stuhlpfarrer.

Christian Bauer, University for Continuing Education Krems, and Egon Schiele Museum, Tulln
Bernadette Reinhold, Oskar-Kokoschka-Zentrum, Collection and Archive, University of Applied Arts Vienna

Exhibitions
Kokoschka Museum Pöchlarn, March 27 – October 26, 2026
Egon Schiele Museum, Tulln, March 27 – November 1, 2026