Object #4

Arnold Schönberg
Berlin-Südende, Berliner Straße 17a
1915

Alban Berg Stiftung, Wien

“Schönberg often makes life difficult for his admirers and a moment later disarms his enemies. The hurried little man with his bald, round head and large burning eyes with something naively good about them in calm moments gives the impression of a fanatic mandarin. He is a sophist and a verbal contortionist of the most fascinating kind: he is capable of capturing a person’s full imagination, making the most paradox things credible, and making the most incredible things convincing. His talent is uncanny; the giftedness of the whole person, not just the musician. He draws and paints, gauche and awkward, but with a peculiar, merciless characteristic – it is shown by his self-portraits – and in the bright power of impressionistic colors. […] His music has elements that are inherent in all of that. The passion for an overly characteristic line, for powerful color stimulus. The passion for being constructive, for mastering the most complex problems, for resolving intractable contrapuntal calculations, unconcerned about whether the wheels screech if they mesh with each other merely organically. In addition, and that is best of all – the powerful intuition of invention, an ecstatic mood artist indulging and exploiting himself, mocking all that is coolly intended..”

(Richard Specht: The Jung-Wien tone poets, in: Die Musik 9/7, January 1910)

The painting Hatred (Catalogue raisonné 81) is seen behind the writing desk in Schönberg’s Berlin apartment. (Object #3).