KOKOSCHKA, OSKAR

(1886-1980)

Playwright. Kokoschka was best known as a successful painter but, like several modernists prior to World War I, he also tried his hand at playwriting. Kokoschka'sMurderer the Hope of Womenwas testimony to his deep distrust of "official" precepts of taste and his interest in Freudian perceptions of sexuality. The play also manifested Kokoschka's recognition of violence in the rapid cultural changes taking place before World War I. The play's dialogue consists of shouts, shrieks, and other fragmented utterances characteristic of earlyExpressionism, but what made the play most unusual was Kokoschka's violent graphic displays that accompanied the dialogue when it was first published. Productions of Kokoschka's plays, which includedHiob(Job) andDer brennende Dornbusch(The Burning Bush) were rare and ran only briefly. National Socialists included Kokoschka's paintings in the infamous 1937 exhibition ofEntartete Kunst, sometimes called "degenerate art." He spent the war years in Great Britain and returned to Vienna in the 1950s to execute several stage designs.