" Hence, in the midst of such fervent criticism, camaraderie was necessary. Groups of artists set up more private performance groups and exhibition halls, such as the Society for Private Performances, the Secession and the Association of Creative Artists. The inter-arts movement was given inner strength through such supportive organisations.
Painting as a mode of self-expression.
The Gerstl Affair.
Richard Gerstl introduced himself to Schoenberg in 1905 at a Mahler concert. They consequently became great friends. However, Gerstl was a highly-strung artist, and was completely anti-establishment. He became increasingly isolated from the art world, and spiralled into despair, resulting in an affair with Schoenberg's wife, Mathilde. When Schoenberg discovered this, he seriously considered suicide. Schoenberg's pupil, Webern, persuaded Mathilde to return to him, for the sake of their children, and when she returned, Gerstl commited suicide. Six weeks after Gerstl's death, Schoenberg painted his first dated portrait, and continued to paint two thirds of his total output in the two following years. .
Perhaps he turned to painting in order to confront his pain. (a "hair of the dog" theory) Another suggestion, made by Jenela Hahl-Koch, is that artists often turn to another medium, when their own work reaches a point of crisis or transition; his deep knowledge of his primary medium becomes an obstacle to transcending its limits. Hahl-Koch refers to Kokoschka's and Kandinsky's theatrical works, which were conceived as they too reached their transition points, in 1908-9. Of course, Schoenberg's "crisis point" refers to his impeding break with tonality; the "emancipation of the dissonance".
The visual arts were certainly important to his, as a mode of self-expression. As he said, to Halsey Stephens in 1950,.
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"Painting was the same to me as making music. It was to me a way of expressing myself, of presenting emotions, ideas and other feelings" .
