OSKAR KOKOSCHKA
A REBEL FROM VIENNA

 
17 MARCH–3 SEPTEMBER 2023
 
GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM BILBAO | BILBAO, SPAIN
 
Oskar Kokoschka, Giant Turtles (Riesenschildkröten), 1927
Oil on canvas, 90.4 x 118.1 cm
Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands
© Fondation Oskar Kokoschka, 2023, VEGAP, Bilbao
 

Painter, writer, playwright and poet, Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) is considered one of the fathers of Viennese modernism. His oeuvre spans almost the entire 20th century and this major retrospective retraces seven decades of creation.

With the desire to express the intensity of the moods of his time, and with a certain talent for provocation, Kokoschka became the critics’ enfant terrible of Vienna from 1908 onwards. It was here, supported by Gustav Klimt and Adolf Loos, that he inspired a new generation of artists, including the young Egon Schiele. As a portraitist of Viennese society, he succeeded in bringing out the interiority of his models with unrivalled efficacy.

Even though he was engaged in a wide range of activities, from theater to political activism and writing, he constantly reinvented himself and produced a revolutionary body of work as a political activist, champion of figurative art, and painter of souls. His late production left its mark on the Neue Wilde, the new painting in Austria and Germany.

Exhibition organized by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris Musée

Exclusive Sponsor: BBVA Foundation