Schoenberg, the painter

from scores to brushes

We know Arnold Schoenberg as a pioneering composer, pedagogue and theoretician - but also as a painter. From 1907, he increasingly had a brush in his hand. In 1910, he even exhibited with Wassily Kandinsky's Blaue Reiter group. Musicologist Oliver Wray Neighbour links this to his musical composition Pierrot lunaire: he calls the period in which this work was created Schoenberg's 'expressionist period', thus drawing a parallel with this brief foray into painting.

Both as a person and an artist, Schoenberg resisted any form of compromise. He spent his life fighting against narrow and petty views. His painting often shows a particular outlook or vision. As in his musical compositions, he employed a painting style of free association between about 1906 and 1911; Schoenberg did not paint "beautiful and charming" images, but wanted to capture a "subjective impression" (Wassily Kandinsky). His oeuvre includes portraits, self-portraits, landscapes and stage set designs.

Want to know more about Arnold Schoenberg as a painter? Then be sure to browse through his drawings and paintings, or listen to the interview "Museum Talk on Painting" conducted by Halsey Stevens with Arnold Schoenberg.
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With special thanks to the Arnold Schoenberg Center, Wien for providing text, photo and video material.