Kokoschka’s Relationship to Music and Musicians

The Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka is closely linked to his country’s musical tradition, in particular to the Viennese composers Schönberg, Berg and Webern. His friends included the orchestra conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, and the musicians Richter, Serkin, Menuhin and Casals. With his masterly painting ‘The Power of Music’ (1918-20) Kokoschka entered the debate on musical dissonance, tonality and chromatic harmony, evoking a ‘music of colours’. Prepared by the Fondation Oskar Kokoschka, this book features contributions from Régine Bonnefoit and Ruth Häusler, and focuses on the huge unpublished correspondence between Kokoschka and the musicians which is accessible at the Zurich Central Library.