Mission and Commissions: Oskar Kokoschka in Minnesota, 1949-1957

by Bela Petheo

Oskar Kokoschka was an Austrian (German) Expressionist who worked out of Minneapolis Minnesota for a few years. This catalog describes him as a painter of tortured portraits of high society in Minneapolis. :) A mix of color, b/w, sculptures and drawings here. Minnesota was rightfully proud of this distinguished artist.

77 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1991

About the author

Bela Petheo was born in Budapest, Hungary (May 14, 1934), where he graduated from Rakoczi Ferenc Gimnazium and from ELTE University of Budapest with a Master’s Degree in Art History. He worked for a Ph.D. under Andrew Pigler in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest while taking private lessons from the well-known Hungarian painter, Pal Molnar-C. After the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, he escaped to Vienna, Austria where he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

In 1959, he immigrated to the United States. Shortly thereafter, he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, a part-time illustrator and an artist. He graduated from the University of Chicago with his MFA. In 1964, he was appointed as an instructor to the University of Iowa, Cedar Falls. In 1966, he was hired as an assistant professor by Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, from which he retired Professor Emeritus in 1997. He devoted his last years to painting and teaching. As a painter educator and art historian, his contributions received due recognition by inclusion in both public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and extensive literature, including Who’s Who in American Art and Bela Petheo: Painter of the Center in an Age of Extremes by J. Gray Sweeney (1985).

Select honors and awards include: Fellowship with the Camargo Foundation, the Paramount Lifetime Achievement Award and numerous teaching honors from Saint John’s University. He was also a longtime member of the Rotary Club.

Reviews

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Bela Petheo, MFA'63
Author

From our pages (Apr/92): "Written by a former pupil, this book provides an overview of Kokoschka's portraiture and teaching while in Minneapolis."