Oskar Kokoschka

It is surprising to realize that Kokoschka died as recently as 1980, since he is so strongly associated with the art of prewar Vienna. This volume concentrates on watercolors and drawings from roughly that period, showing a Kokoschka influenced most notably by Gustav Klimt but not without similarities to the younger Egon Schiele. By the teens, Kokoschka was developing his own expressionist style, which emerged full-blown and florid in the '20s. Editor Sabarsky, a dealer and authority on German expressionism, contributes a rather lumpish introductory essay, accompanied by an obfuscatory verbal outing by Italian vanguard critic Oliva. But Kokoschka's early art more than compensates for the texts. (June)