Art | Pictures of the Month | January 2008
Picture of the Month
January 2008
Self Portrait with Cap [1932]
by Oskar Kokoschka
This painting, which is on long-term loan to the Barber Institute, features as part of the forthcoming exhibition Behind Closed Doors: Birmingham’s Private Collections from Van Dyck to Cornelia Parker.
Traumatised by his experiences of the first world war and a broken love affair with the widow of Viennese composer Gustav Mahler, Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) reveals his psychological unrest through his art. Kokoschka had travelled widely around Europe after the war, finally settling in Paris in 1932, the year in which this self-portrait was painted. After the war, Kokoschka could no longer tolerate the brutality he had witnessed in humanity and resigned himself to an almost insular artistic lifestyle, painting introspective portraits such as this one.
This incisive self-appraisal has a chilling and uneasy energy as the artist stares out past the viewer into the distance behind us. Kokoschka’s Viennese Expressionist style is both raw and brisk, sketching out the personality of a sitter before ever considering the incidentals. From about 1908, he developed an innovative and subjective approach to portrait painting, capturing his emotive response to the sitter.
This painting, in the style of an Old Master, pictures the artist amongst his tools and canvases, even denoting a model in the background that is perhaps a symbol of his former lover, Alma Mahler. The artist’s loaded palette itself represents the activity in which he seeks most comfort, that of painting.
Sarah Brown, Gallery Assistant
A 15-minute gallery talk focusing on this picture and exhibition will be held in the Green Gallery on Thursday 17 January at 1.30pm.
| What is your favourite work of art in the Barber Institute galleries? Drop us a line at info@barber.org.uk and let us know, and we could feature your choice in a future Picture of the Month. |