Considered among the famous Czech people of all time,
Oskar Kokoschka is remembered with other great Viennese artists like Egon Scheile and Gusrav Klimt. Belonging to a family of well known Czech gold smiths,
Oskar Kokoschka was born in 1886. His father was a talented gold smith but he hated doing stereotyped woks like the others.
Oskar Kokoschka was a great drawer and this quality of his fetched him a scholarship in the School of Arts, Vienna. Interestingly, he was not very keen to pursue art but his entry to this institution changed his life. He joined the school in 1905 and soon started working at the Wiener Werkstotte.
Oskar Kokoschka excelled in the field of literature also. Some of his works are:
- Murder, Hoffnung der Frauen or Murderer, Hope of Women
- Sphinx und Strohamann or The Sphinx and the Scarecrow
Oskar Kokoschka faced extreme poverty when he was dismissed from the art school and was sacked from the Werkstotte because he was considered an expressionist. Architect Adolf Loos came to his rescue at this point of time by ensuring him several portrait assignments. He went to Berlin, Germany in 1910 as a magazine artist and came a year later to join as an assistant teacher in the School of Arts. His fame gradually spread over the continents. He passed away in 1980.
