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35. Kokoschka and Klimt

Chosen by:
Dr John Gregory,
Department of Theory of Art and Design, Faculty of Art and Design

Kokoschka, Oskar, 1886-1980

Oskar Kokoschka’s little book vividly conjures up the cultural world of early 20th century Vienna, epitomizing its intense, rich, contradictory character. Viewed from a century later, early Viennese modernism may seem a fragile, hothouse thing, easily swept aside by World War I and subsequent events. But this would be to underestimate its remarkable fecundity and range, in the decade and a half preceding 1914, including an astonishing array of creative work, in literature, music, painting, the graphic arts, design and architecture – not to mention Freud’s invention of psychoanalysis. In Melbourne, a substantial visual trace of the culture may be seen in the furnishings from one of Joseph Hoffmann’s major interiors (see Terence Lane, Vienna 1913: Joseph Hoffmann’s Gallia Apartment, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 1984).

Kokoschka’s Die träumenden Knaben (The Dreaming Boys), produced by Hoffmann’s Wiener Werkstätte for their large Kunstschau of 1908, was published in an edition of 500, of which this is a fine example. The volume was described recently as ‘one of the most beautiful art books of the twentieth century’ (Christian Brandtstätter, ed., Vienna 1900 and the Heroes of Modernism [2005], trans. J. Taylor-Gaida & M.Dobrian, London: Thames & Hudson, 2006, p.190), Kokoschka, aged only 22, contributed both the poetry and the illustrations, featuring eight brightly-coloured lithographs flanked by his text. The poem – a somewhat fevered fantasy involving fish, water, dreams and love – seems more frankly experimental than the images, which call to mind medieval and folk art, and children’s book illustrations. But their style also typifies the graphic strengths of the artists and designers surrounding Hoffmann, even hinting (as in the final page) at the intensity of Egon Schiele, just at the start of his brief career in 1908.

The book is dedicated to Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), whose heady, idiosyncratic version of Jugendstil was also clearly influential on Kokoschka’s developing style. Another notable early supporter was the modernist architect Adolf Loos, although the decorative qualities of this book can hardly have appealed to the stern author of Ornament and Crime (also dating from 1908). Nevertheless, Loos helped Kokoschka establish his career, finding significant sitters for his portraits, which include one of Loos himself, dating from 1909 (Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie). Kokoschka subsequently led a long and successful career as an Expressionist painter (and occasional playwright), living in various European cities before migrating to England in 1938, and finally settling in Switzerland, where he died in 1980, aged 94.

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