Page 25 - Studio International - March 1966

works of art. Only in a few instances are they pre- Columbus (Der Gefesselte Columbus, 1913). The
paratory studies for paintings. dynamics of the narrative, the Expressionist distortion in
That Kokoschka was in many ways a forerunner of Kokoschka's work, are all dictated by human considera-
trends not directly connected with Expressionism is tions. They are the bridge to the Baroque style in
evident from drawings produced in 1908 which com- Kokoschka's later work. Basically, the Baroque was
bine the profile and front view of a head (one of the dynamic, emotional, even violent and therefore Expres-
basic elements of Cubism), or from simultaneous sionist, as was also the art of the Romanesque period.
drawings produced in Berlin in 1910, which anticipate An early poster of Kokoschka's, the one for the
the automatic processes of the Surrealists. That he Kunstschau (1908), has a medival character (it is a
always remained deeply concerned with tradition even Pieta), and his late posters, La Passionaria (1937) or
while searching for a personal and contemporary Christ Saving the Starving Children of Europe (1945),
language is shown by the pen illustrations for Albert have a definite Baroque feeling.
Ehrenstein's Tubutsch (1911). In this instance the In addition to chalk drawings (landscapes and
tradition is rooted in old German art, for example, portraits), Kokoschka had also produced by 1917 eight
Grünewald, Altdorfer; the spirit, however, is that of an lithographs to illustrate Karl Kraus's book The Chinese
artist of the twentieth century — nervous, tense, vital. Wall (Die Chinesische Mauer 1913), and the series of
Another aspect of his creative endeavour is his lithographs The Passion of Christ (Die Passion), all of
exploration of a prismatic structure, his individual which reveal a certain romantic inclination of style.
struggle to render depth with the help of a non- After the First World War, from 1917 onwards,
Renaissance perspective. All these diagonal and trans- Kokoschka's entire graphic work shows a marked
versal lines connecting the various objects and figures of intensification, a new impetus, and the output between
the composition, encircling them like a spider's web, 1917 and 1924 is high. But then, when his great
tying them together as in a woven textile, are attempts travels began, graphic techniques were used very rarely.
by the artist to create pictorial space. We can speak As early as 1913 his style changed. The structural
here of Kokoschka's own 'Cubist' style. It is the style interest receded ; so did the angular element in his
of the Tubutsch illustrations, which culminated in the drawing. Instead of the spatial constructions we find
twelve lithographs to his own play, The Fettered a growing interest in volume. A strong dynamic line

Georg Trakl 1914
Crayon
12 x 8 in.
Reproduced in Ernst Ratenauer's
book of Oskar Kokoschka drawings

Praying woman 1914 Illustration for Albert Ehrenstein's
Lithograph Tubutsch 1911
From the Bach Cantata Pen and ink