Kokoschka’s Backgrounds

Kokoschka’s guiding interest in his early portraits is to capture the inner life and mental state of his subjects. With his “X-ray vision,” he seeks to peer behind the façade of their outward appearance. The design of the backgrounds plays a special role in these works. Color fields fluidly shading into one another set off the sitters and surround them like a materialized aura. As his art evolves, the portraits become more realistic. The painter adds various attributes and narrative accessories, making his backgrounds important media of communication with the beholder.

The exhibition seeks to illustrate this development by juxtaposing a small selection of early paintings with works from the late 1930s onward. Rounded out by prints from the museum’s extensive collection, it aims to shed light on Kokoschka’s seemingly baroque compositions.