Oskar Kokoschka, a Guggenheim Museum dissident

retrospective Oskar Kokoschka. A rebel from Vienna is a project shared by the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, as part of the reviews that the museum programs to examine the trajectory of modern artists.

The exhibition gives an account of the attempts Kokoschka's critical expressionism (1886-1980), and its divergences with Viennese modernism and its decorative deviations. And, at the same time, his career was marked by other dissent with the evolution of wars and totalitarianism of various types that devastated Europe throughout the 20th century.

On March 1, 1886, Oskar Kokoschka was born into a family of humble origins, in the Austrian city of Pöchlarn, located on the banks of the Danube River. From a young age he was interested in classical art and literature. During his studies at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, he grew a powerful influence from the artist Gustav Klimt, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the composer Gustav Mahler and the architect Adolf Loos. In 1908 he finished his studies and at the same time begins his activity as a writer, which he combines with his dedication to painting.

The exhibition is organized according to the periods and contexts in which his artistic and vital journey takes place. In the introductory room, 'A terrifying child in Vienna (1907-1916)', his first challenges to the complacency of the Viennese Art Nouveau decorative style and artistic conventions unfold. Always attentive to the human figuremodulated by a sui generis expressionism whose chromatic emphasis will be a very recognizable formal attribute and analogous to the Fauves, which were contemporaries.

In portraiture and self-portraiture, his introspective wit manifests itself to shape the soul and personality of his sitters. All this would cement his fame as “Kokoschka the portrait painter”. In 1912 he met Alma Mahler with whom he had a convulsive and passionate love affair for several years. I would motivate photos like the bride of the wind1913.

In the portrait, Kokoschka's introspective wit comes through to capture the soul

The second section, “The Dresden Years (1916-1923)”, recounts several relevant events. The break with Alma Mahler in 1914 and his participation in the First World War as a knight during 1914 and 1915, where he was seriously injured. All of this will mark the artistic and literary practice of this period. His paintings stand out self Portrait1917, power of music1918, and The Painter II (The Painter and His Model II)1923. In this he enunciates total irony: on the screen, instead of the model, he represents himself.

[London, 1938: in defense of German 'degenerate art']

“Travels (1923-1934)” is the next section. After resigning from his teaching position at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, he travels through Europe, Africa and the Middle East, painting numerous landscapes, such as the vibrant Marseille, port II1925, and portraits such as the one dedicated to Brancusi, from 1932.

“Resistance in Prague (1934-1938)” includes works from his stay in that city during the civil war between socialists and fascists in Austria. His activism against totalitarian advance is revived and some of his paintings were included by the Nazis in exhibitions of degenerate art. Self-portrait of a degenerate artist, 1937, was his response to this fact. It also stands out in this period the spring1922-1938.

The National Socialists annexed Austria and he was forced into “Exile in England (1938-1946)” with Olda Palkovska, whom he met in Prague and whom he would marry in 1941. An acidic irony characterizes the painting Anschluss. Alice in Wonderland1942. The last section “A European artist in Switzerland, 1946-1980” is the longest and shows his power for portraiture and self-portrait and for the visual allegories that plot his disputes with contemporary history and classical heritage.

[Max Beckmann, at the altars]

In the 1950s he began a critical distance from his contemporaries. His formidable self-portraits from 1948 and 1969 or the representation of figures such as Pablo Casals, 1951, shine in this section. Also the fascinating allegorical recreations of Theseus and Antiope (The Kidnapping of Antiope)1958-1975, and The twilight of Europe1968. Precisely in this painting calls for Russian invasion of Prague.

His expressionist tension and the chromatic richness of his works would find an echo in the renewal of German painting.

Kokoschka also used theater, writing, and political activism to demonstrate the ethical and aesthetic imbrication of her commitment. His expressionist tension and the chromatic richness of his works would find an echo in the renewal of German painting in the 1970s and 1980s, led by the Neue Wilde – the New Savages –, also interested in lively, emotional and sometimes critical pictorial action.

As part of this magnificent exhibition, the film will be shown Kokoschka, work-viedirected by Michel Rodde in 2017. Furthermore, the catalog traces an exhaustive journey through the painter's career with valuable contributions. He did not stop postulating a European project that would allow for a plurality of cultural and political singularities, in a democratic project done and yet to be done.

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