Kokoschka

Today I had my referat: Oskar Kokoschka-Expressionism in Dresden.

He was known as a successful painter, printmaker, and writer. And he spent a good portion of his older life teaching in Dresden at the Academy of Arts. He’s an interesting fellow. Besides his unique take on psychological portraiture and his ability to depict a person’s beauty while distorting reality. He successfully brought together influences of the Art Nouveau era to styles of his other German artists.

He is also well known for his steamy love affair with Alma Mahler, their obsessive relationship led to some of his most famous works(including "the tempest" shown above.)Interestingly enough he decided to serve in WWI, some say it was in order to end his obsessive relationship with Mahler. During that time she remarried and he returned severely wounded, taking a bullet to his head and receiving a deep wound in his side. Still heartbroken over the loss of Mahler, Kokoschka asked a dressmaker to produce a female dummy replicating her in 1919. He saw the dummy as a substitute for his lost love and it was several years before he destroyed it at a party with intoxicated. He is rumored to have cut off the head and lit it on fire.

Interesting, but very odd. Although this is an act he is well known for, it does not seem to overshadow his acquired esteemed reputation here in Dresden. He lived until he was 94, having the longest life of the Austrian Expressionists, using that time to influence the development of modern expressionist art.

Class update:

Class this week is pretty far away. You have to make sure to catch the bus at a certain time or else you will be late. It takes about 25-30 mins to make it to class from our dorms. Class runs from 9.00-12.30 with a half hour break in between. I know less German than I thought. I usually sit there extremely frustrated but slowly it is all coming together.