Vortrag: Oskar Kokoschka. Bad Boy of Viennese Modernism
Vortrag im Rahmen der internationalen Tagung A New Worldview: Vienna's Contribution to European Culture 1890–1935
Im Rahmen der internationalen Tagung A New Worldview: Vienna's Contribution to European Culture 1890–1935 spricht Dr. Bernadette Reinhold, Leiterin des Oskar Kokoschka Zentrums, zum Thema Oskar Kokoschka. Bad Boy of Viennese Modernism. Die Tagung wird organisiert vom Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution in Bath und vom 19. bis 21. März 2021 online ausgetragen.
Abstract
Alongside Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) belongs to the prominent triad of Viennese Modern Art. His debut at the Kunstschau in Vienna, an exhibition celebrating the emperor’s diamond jubilee in 1908, became a major scandal. The same is true for the premiere of his Murder, Hope of Women, one of the first expressionistic plays in literary history, in the following year. As „Oberwildling“ he received mostly scathing criticism, but it gave him access to the avant-garde circles around Karl Kraus, Arnold Schönberg, and especially Adolf Loos. The latter became his mentor, and sent him to Switzerland, Berlin and Munich. Promoted by curators, art historians and dealers, O.K.’s international career as a radical young
talent began. Nevertheless, he continuously felt himself to be the victim of conservative Viennese art critics throughout his entire life. He was convinced that his damnation as a „degenerated artist“ by the Nazi cultural policy, that already started in the 1920ies was rooted in his early, long lasting damnation.