The dialectics of vision: Oskar Kokoschka and the historiography of expressionistic sight

Abstract

In his seminal essay ‘On the Nature of Visions’, Oskar Kokoschka proposes a theory of expressionistic sight that advocates the centrality of both optical and psychological processes in the development of this sensorial construct. The present study argues that Kokoschka’s novel handling of the role of vision in the image forming process implicitly elucidates expressionistic sight as a process fashioned through the dialectical tension that arises from these two prevalent, though oppositional views of artistic vision in the early twentieth century. As such, the historiography of expressionistic sight offered by Kokoschka stands in stark contrast to other prevailing histories written by his interlocutors in fin-de-siècle Germany and Austria.

Keywords

• Oskar Kokoschka
• ‘On the Nature of Visions’
• expressionism
• inner vision
• opticality
• dialectic
• consciousness