The Art and Work of Oskar Kokoschka
Students can learn about the life and work of Oskar Kokoschka with these lessons and activities.
By Daniella Garran
Oskar Kokoschka was a person whose work and life can provide an interesting exploration for students. Although he is best known for his work as an Expressionist painter, he was also a writer. He was born in 1886 in Vienna, Austria. After serving in the Austrian army in World War I, he was declared mentally unstable by his doctors.
In addition to painting, Kokoschka also penned several plays. All of his work, however, was characterized by a great deal of violence. Kokoschka was labeled a degenerate by the Nazis and his work was forbidden from being shown in public. As a result, he fled Austria for his safety, first to Czechoslovakia, and later to England. After World War II, Kokoschka’s work gained notoriety, and his work, along with that of his compatriots Schiele and Klimt, were featured in a significant retrospective.
To help students understand the larger context of the Expressionist movement, consider having a panel discussion in which students pretend to be Kokoschka and his contemporaries. They can discuss the cultural and societal issues they find most significant and influential with regard to their art. A student can serve as moderator and other students could act as reporters posing questions. Have participants write a reflection on their experience or create a newspaper article reporting on the summit.
Another idea would be to have an exhibit in which the art deemed “degenerate” by the Nazis is celebrated and repatriated. Have students select an artist to honor and choose several of their works to feature. Have students conduct research to prepare a short biography of their artists. Then you can display the artists’ work and their biographies in the classroom or along the hallway walls. What follows are more suggestions for lessons and activities related to the work of Oskar Kokoschka.
Art and Work of Oskar Kokoschka:
Self Portraits A Sign of Their Times
The Cincinnati Art Museum has published this lesson which helps teachers educate students about expressionistic self-portraits. The work of Oskar Kokoschka and his contemporaries is featured as a means to help students understand the expressionist movement. Additionally, students learn about why the work of Kokoschka and many of his peers was deemed “degenerate” by the Nazis.
The Museum of Modern Art offers this lesson about portraiture which features the work of Kokoschka. Students explore both the artists’ medium and composition. The lesson provides a forum in which to compare and contrast Kokoschka’s work with that of his contemporary, Kathe Kollwitz. Students’ analysis of Kokoschka’s work should focus on his Expressionistic style.
Although this lesson is not specifically about the work of Oskar Kokoschka, it focuses on creating art as a commentary on society, which was exactly what Kokoschka and his Expressionist contemporaries sought to do. Teachers can easily adapt this lesson so as to focus on the work of the Expressionists and their commentaries on society. Students can be given the opportunity to generate their own social commentary on a topic of their choosing through the visual arts.