Austrian expressionism

3/22/2012

ART HISTORY 4450 Austrian Expressionism

Klimt (1862-1918) • •

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ethnicity: Austrian (Vienna) significance: Vienna Secession (1897) – motto: “To every age its art and to art its freedom" – reacts to Academy’s stifling chokehold – aimed to bring more abstract and purer forms to designs – target of violent criticism • images sometimes displayed behind screen to avoid corrupting youths’ sensibilities – Klimt w/drew eight years later • due to dismay of strong trend towards naturalism themes: (sexual) desire and anxiety aesthetic: decorative – flattened spatial order – sumptuous surfaces/tracery – surrounds figures in gold background – luxurious forms/figures – vivid juxtaposition of colors • derived from Rococo

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Klimt’s (left) Nude Veritas (1899); and (right) Portrait of Emilie Floge (1902)

Klimt •

Unchastity, Lust and Gluttony (1902) – theme: carnal desire – figures: contrast between ideal & grotesque – aesthetic: decorative • sumptuous surfaces/patterns • surrounds figures in gold background – spatial order: flattened – composition: blends stable & dynamic, undulating forms – color: vibrant – light/shadow: negated

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Klimt’s The Kiss (1907)

(Left) Full image of Klimt’s The Kiss (1907); and (right) detail of upper torsos and faces

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Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) • •

aesthetic: Romantic/Symbolist tradition significance: – personal formula for representation of human psychology – physical likeness subordinated to depiction of feelings of model – “attempt to guess true nature of subject by recreating w/ pictorial language what would survive in memory” – pictorial language: • impasto brushwork • facial feature, expressions and movements training: dismissed from Vienna art school; subsequently self-taught

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Kokoschka •

early career: 1910-14 – first solo show held in Berlin (1910) – followed later same year by exhibit at museum in Essen – also began to contribute to periodical Der Sturm (1910) – concentrated on portraiture divided time between Berlin & Vienna

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WWI: – volunteered to serve on eastern front (1915) – seriously wounded – settled in Dresden while recuperating (1917) – comprehensive monograph published (1918) – accepted professorship at Academie (1919)

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Kokoschka • Two Lovers (1913) – theme: physical union – spatial order: shallow niche w/in natural world – figures: naturalistic forms & facial features – pose: vertically intertwined embrace & stride – composition: stability enlivened by striding pose – color: rich palette – light/shadow: identifies forms’ planar structure – brushwork: impasto

(Left) KOKOSCHKA’s Austrian Expressionist Two Lovers (1913 AD) vs. (right) Greek Hellenistic Eros and Psyche (c. 150 BCE)

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Kokoschka • The Tempest; or Bride of the Wind (1914) – self-portrait of artist expressing unrequited love for Alma Mahler • lover and muse – first to composer/conductor Gustav Mahler – then to architect Walter Gropius – then to artist Oskar Kokoschka – eventually to novelist Franz Werfel • portrayed as passionate woman who live life w/ abandon – setting: other-worldly – figure: • male  mannered; sleepless • female  idealized; restful

– brushwork: agitated

Kokoschka’s Bride of the Wind (1914)

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Kokoschka •

The Knight Errant (1915) – subject: expression of K’s pain over death of unborn child (re: abortion) of and crumbling of relationship w/ Alma Mahler – central figure: self-portrait • armor of medieval knight • errant, or lost, in stormy landscape – Iconography: • bird-man  Death • Sphinx-like woman  Mahler – sky: funereal • bears letters “E S”  Christ’s lamnet (“My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”)

– brushwork: agitated  spiritual discomfort

KOKOSCHKA’s Knight Errant (1915)

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Egon Schiele (1890-1918) •

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significance: regarded as successor to Klimt, but died before fulfilling his promise biography: – father went mad & died – late adolescence: incestuous relationship with younger sister – suffered from persecution mania – died of Spanish (avian) flu themes: – pubescent children, especially extremely erotic young girls – self-portraits in large numbers studio: – gathering place for delinquent children – arrested, imprisoned & found guilty of exhibiting erotic drawing (1912 )

(Left) Schiele’s Austrian Expressionist Scorn (1910) vs. (right) Toulouse-Lautrec’s Alone (c. 1895)

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(Left) SCHIELE’s Austrian Expressionist Two Lovers (1915) vs. (right) COURBET’s Realist The Sleepers (1866)

SCHIELE’s Death and Maiden (1915-16)

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(Left) SCHIELE’s Death and Maiden (1915-16) vs.

KOKOSCHKA’s Bride of the Wind (1914)

SCHIELE’s Embrace (1917)

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(Left) Detail from SCHIELE’s Austrian Embrace (1917) vs. (right) detail from KLIMT’s The Kiss (1907-08)

IMAGE INDEX • •

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Photograph of Gustav Klimt.

(Left) KLIMT’s Nude Veritas (1899), Oil on canvas, 252 x 56 cm., Theatre Collection of the National Library, Vienna; and (right) Portrait of Emilie Floge (1902), Oil on canvas, 71 1/4 x 26 1/8 in., Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, Vienna.

KLIMT. Beethoven Frieze: central narrow wall (detail): Unchastity, Lust and Gluttony (1902), Casein paint on plaster, 220 cm high, Austrian Gallery, Vienna.

KLIMT. The Kiss (1907-08), Oil and gold on canvas, 180 x 180 cm., Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna.

Photograph of Oscar Kokoschka.

KOKOSCHKA, Oskar. Self-Portrait as a Degenerate Artist Oil (1937), Oil on canvas, 110.00 x 85.00 cm., National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.

KOKOSCHKA, Oskar. Two Nudes (Lovers) (1913), Oil on canvas, 64 1/4 x 38 3/8 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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IMAGE INDEX •

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(Left) KOKOSCHKA’s Two Nudes (Lovers) (1913 AD); and (right) Hellenistic Eros and Psyche (c. 150 BC), marble, 49” high, Museo Capitolino, Rome.

KOKOSCHKA, Oskar. Bride of the Wind (1914), Oil on canvas, 5 ft 11 1/4 in. x 7 ft 3 in., Kunstmuseum, Basle.

KOKOSCHKA, Oskar. The Knight Errant (1915), Oil on canvas, 35 1/4 x 70 7/8 in., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

SCHIELE, Egon. Self-Portrait Standing (1910), Gouache, watercolor and pencil with white highlighting, 55.8 x 36.9 cm., Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna.

(Left) SCHIELE, Scorn (1910), Gouache, watercolor and charcoal with white highlighting, 45 x 31.4 cm., Private collection; and (right) TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, Alone (c.

1895), Oil on board, 12 x 15 3/4 in., Musee D’Orsay, Paris.

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(Left) SCHIELE, Two Lovers (1915), Gouache and pencil, 32.8 x 49.7 cm., Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna; and (right) COURBET, The Sleepers (1866), oil on canvas, 53 1/8 x 78 3/4 in., Musee du Petit Palais, Paris.

SCHIELE, Egon. Death and the Maiden (1915/16), Oil on canvas, 150 x 180 cm., Oesterreichische Galerie, Vienna.

(Left) SCHIELE’s Austrian Expressionist Death and Maiden (1915-16); and (right) KOKOSCHKA’s Austrian Expressionist Bride of the Wind (1914).

SCHIELE, Egon. Embrace (1917), Oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 67 in., Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna.

(Left) Detail from SCHIELE’s Austrian Expressionist Embrace (1917); and (right) detail from Klimt’s Symbolist The Kiss (1907-08), Oil and gold on canvas, 180 x 180 cm., Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna.

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