Painter
1 March 1886, Pochlarn, Lower Austria - 22 February 1980, Montreux, Switzerland
The painter who turned Hohensalzburg Fortress into an art school. Oskar Kokoschka, one of the great Expressionist painters of the 20th century, founded the Schule des Sehens (School of Vision) at the fortress in 1953 as part of the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts. Every summer, artists from across the world gathered at the fortress to study under his intensely humanistic, anti-abstract approach to painting.
His portraits, raw and vibrating with psychological intensity, helped define how Expressionism depicted inner life. The International Summer Academy at the Fortress (now the Internationale Sommerakademie fur Bildende Kunst) remains one of Salzburg’s living cultural institutions.
Locations
Founded 1077
One of the largest and best-preserved medieval castle fortresses in Europe, perched on Festungsberg hill above Salzburg's Altstadt. Founded in 1077 by Gebhard von Helfenstein, transformed into a princely residence by Leonhard von Keutschach, and never conquered. The defining landmark of Salzburg's skyline.
