Page 26 - Studio International - March 1966

dictated by a powerful impulse, rather than by any other further examples of this development. So are the
considerations, becomes dominant. Here we must fourteen lithographs to Kokoschka's play Job (Hiob,
mention above all the eleven lithographs of the Bach 1917) ; the five etchings of his play Orpheus and
Cantata (1914), one of his most imposing graphic Eurydice (Orpheus und Eurydike, 1918) ; and the
works. The voices of Fear and Hope in the Bach Cantata illustrations for Dirsztay's books, Praise of the High
—'O Ewigkeit—Du Donnerwort, so spanne meine Glieder Intellect (Lob des Hohen Verstandes, 1917), The
aus'—are represented by a couple wandering through an Inescapable (Der Unentrinnbare, 1923). The climax of
apocalyptic forest landscape, passing symbols of death. this development is the series of ten portraits entitled
What takes shape in these compositions is the mature Concert: Variations on a Theme (Konzert: Variationen
style of Kokoschka's graphic art, in which the personal über ein Thema, 1920), a cycle showing different
Expressionist element, the element based on tradition aspects of the same person listening to music. The
and the element provided by an increasingly intensified innermost life of a human being is here caught through
study of nature, are welded together into an harmonious the changes of expression in so overwhelming a
unity. Large portrait heads such as that of Käthe Richter manner that Professor Max Dvořák could speak of the
(1917), of The Artist's Mother (1917), Hasenclever inexhaustible and overflowing movement of an inward
Poster 1923 (1918), and the heads of the series The Daughters of the vitalization.
Coloured lithograph Covenant (Die Töchter des Bundes, 1920-1922), are After the Second World War, no violent changes take
46 1/8 x 34 5/8 in.
place in Kokoschka's graphic style. In human depth and
expressiveness he could not go beyond what he had
achieved. What took place, however, is a harmoniza-
tion, a mellowing of contrasts. This path led through a
middle period, the second great period of his graphic
work, which started about 1930. It was marked
personally by a vigorous acceptance of life and, above
all, of womanhood, the eternal feminine component in
the continuity of life. Here we find, apart from the illus-
trations to Albert Ehrenstein's book My Song (Mein
Lied, 1931), the large-size drawings of nudes and
female likenesses in red chalk (1931-1932), which are
among the best works the artist has produced. The
Baroque-Realistic element comes strongly to the fore.
Alas, this period was a short one. The Second World
War was rapidly approaching, and with it years of
upheaval. A stylistic link between this middle period and
the late period of Kokoschka's work may be found in the
series of red chalk drawings which he made of his wife,
Olda (1935-38).
The studies after nature in coloured pencil, which
Kokoschka produced during the Second World War in
Cornwall (1939), Scotland (1942, 1944 and 1945) and
in London (between 1940 and 1946), speak of an
intimate and meditative relationship to nature. Line is
here directly translated into colour, the style is refined
by a dynamic summary rendering of natural shapes :
blossoms, berries, fruit, clouds, water and rock, and
animals, as well as portraits and human figures. From
there to the sketches for theatre decorations and
costumes— Mozart's The Magic Flute 1955, Ferdinand
Raimund's Moisasur's Magic Curse (Moisasur's Zau-
berfluch), The III-Omened Crown (Die Unheilbringende
Krone) and The Fettered Phantasy (Die Gefesselte
Phantasie)— is only a step. There is the same shorthand
annotation with the emphasis on form and structure,
but here it is dictated by a theatrical purpose.
From 1948 onward Kokoschka also produced litho-
graphs; fewer, however, than in earlier periods. The
Magic Form is a self-portrait as a conjurer, a satire on
abstract art (1952). Leda is another theme; and there
are illustrations for his own storyAnn Eliza Reed (1952),
as well as some nudes, colour lithographs of a grey-
hound, The Fox and the Sour Grapes (1952) ; Two
Girls; Amor and Psyche; a Self-Portrait (1956) and