The Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) achieved global fame with his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes. In this first English-language biography, Rüdiger Görner depicts the artist in all his fascinating and contradictory complexity. He traces Kokoschka’s path from bête noire of the bourgeoisie and “hunger artist” who had to flee the Nazis to a wealthy and cosmopolitan political and critical artist who played a significant role in shaping the European art scene of the twentieth century and whose relevance is undiminished to this day.
In Kokoschka: A Life in Art, Görner emphasizes the artist’s versatility. Kokoschka, although best known for his expressionistic portraits and landscapes, was more than a mere visual artist: his achievements as a playwright, essayist, and poet bear witness to a remarkable literary talent. Music, too, played a central role in his work, and a passion for teaching led him to establish in 1953 the School of Seeing, an unconventional art school intended to revive humanist ideals in the horrific aftermath of war. This biography shows brilliantly how all the pieces of Kokoschka’s disparate interests and achievements cohered in the richly creative life of a singular artist.
By:
Rudiger Goerner
Translated by:
Debra Marmor,
Herbert Danner
Imprint: Haus Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 9mm,
Width: 6mm,
Spine: 1mm
Weight: 666g
ISBN: 9781912208814
ISBN 10: 1912208814
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 23 January 2021
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
The Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka achieved world fame with his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes. In this first English-language biography, Ru¨diger Görner depicts the artist in all his fascinating and contradictory complexity. He traces Kokoschka’s path from bête noire of the bourgeoisie and a so-called ‘hunger artist’ to a wealthy and cosmopolitan political and critical artist who played a major role in shaping the European art scene of the twentieth century and whose relevance is undiminished to this day. Kokoschka’s achievements as a playwright, essayist and poet bear witness to his remarkable literary talent. Music, too, played a central role in his work, and his passion for teaching led him to establish in 1953 the School of Seeing, an unconventional art school conceived to revive humanist ideals in the horrific aftermath of war.
Rudiger Goerner works as Professor of German with Comparative Literature at the Queen Mary University of London. He is Founding Director of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations, and has authored many acclaimed books including biographies of Rainer Maria Rilke and the poet Georg Trakl.
Reviews for Kokoschka: The Untimely Modernist
'Goerner narrates [...] in a compelling way' - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; 'With appropriately rhapsodic descriptions, Goerner shows how incredibly [...] worldly this petty bourgeois from Poechlarn has been' - Die Welt; ‘An unconventional but long-awaited approach to Kokoschka’s rich oeuvre. Rüdiger Görner does not restrict his considerations to the painter and his formal characteristics but rather sets Kokoschka’s singular character against a social, literary and political background in a century of European turmoil. [...] Görner sheds light on how contemporaries such as Thomas Mann and Karl Kraus viewed Kokoschka’s oeuvre. This new biography is a holistic reflection on Kokoschka as a person, with his paintings and writings, his enemies and lovers, his agonies and his hopes’ Catherine Hug Kunsthaus Zürichs; ‘Rüidger Görner does not separate Kokoschka’s art from his life. The artist was driven, always trying to cross boundaries, be they moral, political or social. The veracity of his art was the result of these frictions never being hidden. Görner works along the same principles, creating a convincing book and presenting the entire Oskar Kokoschka, perhaps for the first time, and leaves the reader with an unforgettable impression’ Johann Konrad Eberlein, former director of the Institute of Art History at University of Graz
