Oskar Kokoschka "Martha Hirsch"

From: Neue Galerie
Limited Edition: 5
Exhibition: Focus: Oskar Kokoschka
Material: Printed vinyl
Dimensions: 35" x 96" (88cm x 243cm)

Hanging Hardware Included

Summary

Austrian Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka's psychologically tinged portrait of Martha Hirsch is dramatically featured on 5 banners promoting an exhibition of his works at the Neue Gallerie. Kokoschka along with his contemporaries Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele led the Viennese Expressionist movement that sought to capture the expressive nature of humanity from the inside out.

Description

Austrian Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka’s early oil paintings and drawing were the subject of the Neue Galerie’s exhibition Focus: Oskar Kokoschka. Kokoschka created art that tackled issues of moral character with sensitivity to the human condition. His portraiture sought to capture his subjects’ internal emotion and humanity in an external way. The interior emanating externally.

"I depend very much on being able to capture a mental impression, the impression that remains behind when the image itself has passed. In a face I look for the flash of the eye, the tiny shift of expression, which betrays an inner movement."

The results are apparent throughout Kokoschka’s canvases which often use brushstrokes, color, and line to meld his figures into indistinguishable wholes with his backgrounds. In his painting Martha Hirsch (Dreaming Woman) (1909), featured on these banners, Kokoschka uses weak colors and thin, delicate lines to express the inner fragility of his subject. Kokoschka reveals his subject’s vulnerability by capturing Hirsch’s gaze which hesitantly looks into the distance with sunken eyes, her timid lips pursed. The muted mustard to reddish paint color which Kokoschka uses in the background blends into the subject’s blouse and creates an atmosphere reinforcing the nebulous emotion Kokoschka reveals in Hirsch.

Below the image is a black band with white text that reads “From Klimt To Klee/Masterworks From the Serge Sabarsky Collection/October 15 – February 15, 2010”. Printed in white at the bottom right corner of the banner is the museum’s information “Neue Galerie/Museum for German and Austrian Art/New York”.

Provenance

These banners were displayed around Manhattan from October 15, 2009 through February 15, 2010 to promote the exhibition, Focus: Oskar Kokoschka at the Neue Galerie in New York.