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The Arts Intel Report

Oskar Kokoschka: A Rebel from Vienna

Oskar Kokoschka, Paysage des Dolomites, Tre Croci, 1913.

Mar 17 – Sept 3, 2023
Abandoibarra Etorb., 2, 48009 Bilbo, Bizkaia, Spain

Shortly after Oskar Kokoschka was born in Pöchlarn, Austria, in 1892, a fire broke out across town. That fire never left his art. In 1908, Kokoschka was kicked out of Vienna’s School of Arts and Crafts because his Expressionist portraits and landscapes were considered disturbing, both in content and in form. In fact, working alongside Gustav Klimt and inspiring Egon Schiele, he’d found new ways to capture the innermost secrets of his sitters. During the 1920s, Kokoschka traveled through Europe, and in 1938, after the Nazis condemned his work as “degenerate” art, he became a British citizen. In this retrospective, 150 works tell the story of Vienna’s “enfant terrible.” —Elena Clavarino

Photo: © Fondation Oskar Kokoschka/Adagp, Paris 2022