Oskar Kokoschka

Oskar Kokoschka's work tends to revolve around portraiture and self portraiture, with the occasional landscape painting. The colour palette that Kokoschka uses is intense and vibrant, forgoing using a subdued and realistic palette in order to represent the subject not just as their physical form but also the personality and mood of the subject.

When talking about his influences, it's obvious that Kokoschka follows the same methods as Vincent Van Gogh's work. Kokoschka's style was rather unique in that he had no formal training in painting so he didn't approach the subject with any preconceived notions on what the 'correct' way to paint was. In terms of his technique, Kokoschka's paintings seem to hold a nervously animated energy, especially his earlier paintings, you could argue that this reflected how he would have felt, having no formal training.

Source: 'Oskar Kokoschka 1886--1980' 700/KOK (CAT)