Oskar Kokoschka: A Rebel from Vienna

Curators: Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer, in collaboration with Fabrice Hergott and Fanny Schulmann.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris Musées present Oskar Kokoschka. A Rebel from Vienna, a retrospective devoted to the Austrian artist considered one of the fathers of Viennese modernism. The exhibition is sponsored exclusively by BBVA Foundation, Strategic Trustee of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Oskar Kokoschka (b. 1886; d. 1980) garnered early success in Vienna’s art scene, where he was backed by Gustav Klimt, exerted an influence on Egon Schiele when the latter was young, and achieved international renown at the end of his career after the two world wars. By the waning days of World War II, Kokoschka was calling for a united Europe, and his late production left its mark on the Neue Wilde, the new painting in Austria and Germany. Even though he dabbled in a wide range of activities, from theater to political activism and writing, the common thread throughout his life was art. In this field, he constantly reinvented himself and produced a revolutionary body of work as a political activist, champion of figurative art, and painter of souls.

This presentation traces the most critical stages of Kokoschka's eventful artistic life, from the early years as the “enfant terrible” of the pre-World War Viennese art scene to the final phase, in which the artist demonstrated his enormous creative power and skills, becoming a role model for generations to come. Bringing together approximately 120 pieces, Oskar Kokoschka. A Rebel from Viena explores the vitality and power of Kokoschka’s oeuvre and reveals how he developed a groundbreaking style marked by tremendous psychological depth and complexity. Visitors will have the opportunity to discover his long, multifarious, pioneering artistic journey reflected in his sharp portraits, transcendental landscapes, and political and allegorical canvases. Divided into six sections, the show not only reflects Kokoschka’s originality, but also allows us to cross the European 20th century alongside him.

Despite being associated with the artistic and intellectual circles in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century and with his contemporaries Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Kokoschka’s first works departed from the decorative style of the Viennese Art Nouveau and were seen as too innovative by the public and critics, who soon described as “Oberwidling,” the most savage of them all. The second and third sections of the exhibition reveal respectively the years spent in Dresden after being wounded in World War I and his traveling spirit, which led him to visit Europe, and North Africa. The fourth and fifth sections highlight his work created during the World War II, when he was classified as a “degenerate artist” by the National Socialists, and the raise of Nazism forced him to flee first to Prague and then to London. He then put his art entirely at the service of the international resistance becoming an influential figure for European reconciliation after World War II and actively participating in the cultural reconstruction of a devastated continent. The paintings from those years are sharp but profound political commentaries that have remained relevant to the present day. The deep roots of his artistic and political convictions become even more evident in the sixth and last section of the exhibition, which deals with his time in Switzerland, where the artist settled after World War II and remained until his death. In his final creative phase, Kokoschka demonstrated his enormous creative abilities again, opening the way to a new generation of painters.