Library and Archive Reading Rooms
View by appointment- Created by
- Oskar Kokoschka 1886–1980
- Recipient
- Dr J. P. Hodin
- Title
- Letter from Oskar Kokoschka to J.P. Hodin
- Date
- 31 December 1966
- Format
- Document - correspondence
- Collection
- Tate Archive
- Acquisition
- Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate, 2006. Accrual presented by Annabel Hodin, 2020
- Reference
- TGA 20062/4/199/3/30
Description
[Translation/transcription]
Villeneuve
31 December 1966
My dearest Master,
At last I'm reading your fervent declaration of love, your book. I pity the youth of the coming generation, who will read this life as we read of Parsifal and the Chevalier de Bayard. To people our age they seem confined to a place where there are no adventures, no moors and no true love, a place in the next century where automated technology has covered the whole artificial surface of their lives with aluminium, nylon and silicone, tolerable to martians but not to humans, where the imagination has been reduced to imitating insects and crustacea, those crawling creatures in armour, where the skin can't breathe, where life can't pulsate. Poor future! We had the dolphins and eagles of Greece, the lions and the sparkling stars for inspiration, and the serpents could still shed their skins. You've written a wonderful book, my dearest Master. I wish you and the beautyfull one a truly blessed and happy new year 1967.
Always gratefully yours,
OK
Archive context
- Papers of Josef Paul Hodin TGA 20062 (407)
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- Correspondence by sender TGA 20062/4 (275)
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- Correspondence between Oskar Kokoschka and J.P. Hodin TGA 20062/4/199 (112)
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- Correspondence from Oskar Kokoschka to J.P. Hodin, 1960-9 TGA 20062/4/199/3 (43)
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- Letter from Oskar Kokoschka to J.P. Hodin TGA 20062/4/199/3/30