Kokoschka

The Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) achieved global fame with his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes. In this first English-language biography, Rüdiger Görner depicts the artist in all his fascinating and contradictory complexity. He traces Kokoschka's path from bête noire of the bourgeoisie and "hunger artist" who had to flee the Nazis to a wealthy and cosmopolitan political and critical artist who played a significant role in shaping the European art scene of the twentieth century and whose relevance is undiminished to this day.

In Kokoschka: A Life in Art, Görner emphasizes the artist's versatility. Kokoschka, although best known for his expressionistic portraits and landscapes, was more than a mere visual artist: his achievements as a playwright, essayist, and poet bear witness to a remarkable literary talent. Music, too, played a central role in his work, and a passion for teaching led him to establish in 1953 the School of Seeing, an unconventional art school intended to revive humanist ideals in the horrific aftermath of war. This biography shows brilliantly how all the pieces of Kokoschka's disparate interests and achievements cohered in the richly creative life of a singular artist.

[A] rich literary study of a major cultural figure.
Art History

Rudiger Goerner is a thorough expert in all things Kokoschka, and his work is entertaining as it is knowledgeable.
New Art Examiner

This is a revelatory new biography of Oskar Kokoschka. Rudiger Goerner tells the story of the life and loves of this unique Central European painter and man of letters as he interacted with writers, musicians and artists in is milieu as well as many important political leaders. Arguably full of inner contradictions, Kokoschka remains a hugely significant figure whose relevance is undiminished indeed for these times.
Norman Rosenthal

An unconventional but long-awaited approach to Kokoschka's rich oeuvre. Rudiger Goerner sets Kokoschka's singular character against a social, literary and political background in a century of European turmoil, shedding light on how contemporaries such as Thomas Mann and Karl Kraus viewed his work. This new biography is a holistic reflection on Kokoschka as a person, with his paintings and writings, his enemies and lovers, his agonies and hopes.
Catherine Hug, curator of Kunsthaus Zurich

Ru diger Goerner does not separate the artist from his life. Kokoschka was driven, always trying to cross boundaries, be they moral, political or social. The veracity of his art was the result of these frictions never being hidden. Goerner works along the same principles, creating a convincing book and presenting the entire Kokoschka, perhaps for the first time, and leaves the reader with an unforgettable impression.
Johann Konrad Eberlein, former director of the Institute of Art History at University of Graz

Goerner unearths a plentitude of unexpected and enlightening discoveries about Kokoschka's life
Timothy Benson, curator of Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Rudiger Goerner was Professor of German with Comparative Literature at Queen Mary, University of London. The Founding Director of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations, his books include biographies of Rainer Maria Rilke, Georg Trakl and Stefan Zweig. He has been the recipient the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

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