Oskar Kokoschta: Expressionism/Projection

Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) was a well traveled Austrian artist who produced work for about sixty years of his life.

Kokoschka was an expressionist painter for he would often do portraits in which he would distort the figures facial expressions and also play with the color in order to further portray the emotional state in the painting. He would distort the facial components of the figures in his painting by projecting his self emotional state into them, often even adding characteristics of his own facial makeup. 

The painting to the left is titled  Portrait of Adolf Loos  (1909)  that he painted of the Austrian-Hungarian architect Adolf Loos. Kokoschka projected his own emotional state into the sitter and the painting and colors chosen are the result. The interpretation of the expression can be said to be of a dark, tired, ambivalent, and tense emotion. This is taken from the darkness of portrait. He constructs a black and white painting that is dominantly black that removes any other color that could be interpreted differently. The features of the face of Loos are exaggerated overemphasizing the sunken features around the eyes. Also very notable is the figures hands. The grip of Loos is altered and is very tight in the portrait giving off a tense emotion.

The projection given by Kokoschka can be related back to Sigmund Freud. With my psychological study background I hypothesize, according to Freud's work, that Kokoschka is projecting his own emotional self by the means of his id. Freud states that we have three levels of consciousness being the id, the super ego, and the ego. The id is the unconscious that houses our instinctive drives, the ego is our conscious self, and the superego is conscious and unconscious that filters what should be brought to consciousness or repressed from the id. I believe, again according to Freud's theory, that Kokoschka's projection could be the result of a battle between his super ego and id. His id is wanting to express his true emotion which are given almost subliminally throughout the painting (tight clenched hands) while his super ego allows him to complete the painting of Loos as still recognizable of Loos himself. 

Also, not too sure the method of uploading youtube videos but here is a very interesting full documentary on Oskar Kokoschka.