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Oskar Kokoschka
(1886 - 1980)
SELBSTBILDNIS, BRUSTBILD MIT ZEICHSTIFT (BUST-LENGTH SELF-PORTRAIT WITH DRAWING PENCIL). 1914. Wingler and Welz 58. Plate 1 from the portfolio O Eternity—Thou Word of Thunder (Bach Cantata) [O Ewigkeit—Du Donnerwort (Bachkantate)], published 1916. One from a portfolio of 11 lithographs, 458 x 310 mm (18.03 x 12.20") image; the sheet 673 x 512 mm (26.50 x 20.16"), on Van Gelder Zonen cream wove paper. Published by Fritz Gurlitt, Berlin. Signed in pencil.
$5,500.
"Through these eleven illustrations of Bach's cantata no. 60,
. . . Kokoschka attempted to exorcise the pain from his tormented relationship with Alma Mahler. . . . Kokoschka remained infatuated with her, even after she rebuffed his marriage proposal and aborted his child. . . . Kokoschka insisted it was the libretto, not Bach's music, that prompted him to make the prints. . . . In printmaking, Kokoschka preferred lithography for its directness and the rich range of tonal values that he could wrest from the lithographi crayon." —Heather Hess
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