BIB_ID
430875
Accession number
MA 22743
Creator
Kokoschka, Oskar, 1886-1980.
Display Date
London, England?, circa 1942.
Credit line
Purchased, 2019.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 11.5 x 17.9 cm
Notes
Kokoschka gives the date of writing only as "Sunday." No place of writing is given, but in this period Kokoschka was living in England.
Saraçi was an Albanian painter and politician. Kokoschka and Saraçi met in 1939 and eventually shared a Kensington studio in Stratford Road. Kokoschka painted a portrait of Saraçi in 1959.
Saraçi was an Albanian painter and politician. Kokoschka and Saraçi met in 1939 and eventually shared a Kensington studio in Stratford Road. Kokoschka painted a portrait of Saraçi in 1959.
Provenance
Purchased from Schulson Autographs, 2019.
Summary
Thanking Saraçi for his letter; writing of art: "Your love of Art is a blessing specially in this time of ours that gives man only substitutes instead of passions [...] Art is a gigantic landmark that divides the earth of the worship of the bloody sacrifice from the earth of the cultured man;" writing of their times: "Too often all of us have reasons to gnash our teeth and to hate a society which shows no spark of understanding for the immense loss that does mankind incalculable harm while humanity fights its stupid barbarous wars! Why?"; mentioning that he has just received from Cambridge University Press a copy of a book to which he contributed an essay: "The title of the whole book is: The Teacher of Nations, Addresses and Essays in Commemoration of Comenius, edited by Joseph Needham [...] My essay is The True Cuckoo's egg laid in the nest of the little birds;" asking Saraçi to mail or deliver by hand an enclosed letter (no longer with the item).
Catalog link
Department