Painter but also writer, playwright and poet, Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) is one of the major modern artists of early 20th century Vienna. By 1908 he had become the consecrated « enfant terrible » of the Vienna art world, intense and provocative, supported by the great figures of the previous generation, Gustav Klimt and Adolf Loos, and an inspiration to younger artists such as Egon Schiele. 

In our tour we will cover his pre-war portraits of Viennese high society, his famous love affair with Alma Mahler, his traumatic experience of WWI and his later career in Germany as well as his travels in North Africa and the Middle East. In 1938 he fled the Nazis for London, settling after the war in Switzerland. Organized in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the exhibition presents 150 major works covering all of Kokoschka’s long career and showcasing him as one of the greatest Expressionist painters of the 20th century.