Art lecture at the Beek en Donk Senior Citizens' Association

The Beek en Donk Senior Citizens' Association is giving a lecture on art.

The Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) was a true people person. What he saw in others, he also saw in himself. The people he observed and painted were, in fact, a mirror of his own soul. The joys and sorrows of others were his own joys and sorrows. He could discover this within himself with amazement. One of his most famous self-portraits is also the one in which he points at himself.

He once said: "The capers of the human soul, the tragedy, the sublime, but also the trivial and ridiculous of the human being, that's what I was drawn to. Probably because all of that is mine too." It's no wonder that people were his primary subject. In countless portraits, he turned the fears and anxieties of the people who posed for him inside out. The inner turmoil he exposes is often linked to society or the time in which the subject lived. But he also took his own turbulent life as his subject, such as his obsessive relationship with Alma Mahler, the young widow of composer Gustav Mahler. He had a doll made in her likeness and painted a series of seven fans and several canvases for her, depicting the course of their tragic relationship. Ultimately, she proved to be an impossible love. Later, a book was written and a film made about it. "Every person is unique, and every face of a person evokes compassion," he said. He likely expressed the hope that others would see him in the same way: "Look at me, that's who I am, I can only go my own way. I apologize in advance for that." It is an attitude he maintained throughout his long life of 94 years.

In a lecture with a slide presentation, art historian Dr. Ger Jacobs will delve deeper into the life and work of Oskar Kokoschka, a man sometimes called Austria's Vincent van Gogh. The lecture will be held at the Beek en Donk Community Center. The fee includes a cup of coffee or tea during the break.