Prinzip
Artist: Oskar Kokoschka (Austrian, 1886-1980)
Date: 1918
Dimensions:
(Sheet) H: 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm); W: 12 5/16 in. (31.3 cm)
Medium: Color lithograph on beige wove Japan paper.
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Gift of Barbara Sunderman Hoerner
Object number: 2005.214
Label Text:Much of European Expressionism grew out of artists’ disenchantment with politics and culture during and after World War I (1914–18). In The Principle, Oskar Kokoschka explored his fear of Germany descending into civil war following the overthrow of the imperial government at the end of the War. In this stylistically messy image, blood pours out of the mouth of a sculpted bust of Marianne, the French representation of Liberty. Inscribed across the base as a warning, the slogan of the French Revolution and of the November Group, a revolutionary artistic collective, is altered from “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” to “Liberty, Equality, and Fratricide.” The November Group sought to make art a tool of social and political transformation, but Kokoschka deeply mistrusted their goals.
Not on view
In Collection(s)