EN

Almost exactly a hundred years ago, Kokoschka (1886 Pöchlarn – 1980 Montreux) is appointed to a professorship at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he embarks on a mission to overhaul the teaching methods. His time in the city known as “Florence on the Elbe” lasts, with a few interruptions, from 1916 to 1923. Kokoschka forges close relationships with Expressionist circles and paints a large number of portraits. Stimulated by the city’s vibrant artistic life, he experiments with various techniques during a period of great creativity in which he comes to terms with the events of the First World War and recovers from his injuries. “I was able to do anything I wanted in Dresden at that time,” he confesses in his autobiography.