Maxim Kopf

Maxim Kopf (born Maximilian Kopf; 18 January 1892 – 6 July 1958) was an Austrian-American painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Active primarily in Prague, he was a prominent figure of German cultural life in Czechoslovakia during the interwar period. His early work was strongly influenced by Expressionism. He later turned to biblical subjects, cityscapes, and landscapes. Often described as a cosmopolitan painter, Kopf produced work in Germany, Czechoslovakia, France, Polynesia and the United States, and traveled extensively in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Dalmatia, Bessarabia and Crimea.

Early life and education

Kopf was born on 18 January 1892 in Vienna, the second of four children of Austrian civil servant Emil Kopf (1863–1911) and his wife Louisa, née Jagemann (died 1865). He grew up in a German-speaking household and may have had Czech roots through his grandmother Maria Truhelková. From 1911 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague under August Brömse, Franz Thiele, Vlaho Bukovac and Karl Krattner. During the First World War he served as an officer in the Joint Army of Austria-Hungary.

Interwar career in Prague

After the war Kopf chose Czechoslovak citizenship and remained in Prague. He joined the Metznerbund and in 1919 co-founded, with August Brömse, the artist group Die Pilger (The Pilgrims), an association of German-speaking artists in Bohemia. Early members included Josef Hegenbarth, Emil Helzel, Norbert Hochsieder, Julius Pfeiffer and Leo Sternhell, while Mary Duras, Walther Klemm, Moriz Melzer and Emil Orlik joined later. The group remained active until 1925. In 1920, Kopf received a prize from the Prague Academy for the painting The Pilgrim. A scholarship enabled him to continue his studies from 1921 to 1923 at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts under Otto Gussmann (1869-1926).

In 1927, Kopf founded the Young Art group in Prague, which held its first exhibition in 1928 and from which the Prague Secession emerged in 1929. The Prague Secession held annual exhibitions at the Art Association for Bohemia from 1929 through 1937. In 1933–34 Kopf executed the large ceiling fresco of the former German House in Prague.

Travels and the South Seas

Kopf traveled to Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands in 1924, beginning his first South Seas cycle of paintings. In 1925 he worked for the Ziegfeld Theater in New York, where he organized an exhibition in the New Gallery for visiting artists Hilde Goldschmidt, Friedrich Karl Gotsch and Hans Meyboden. He subsequently spent time in Paris and Montrouge before returning to Prague.

At the end of summer 1934 he undertook a second voyage, traveling via Suez, Ceylon, Singapore, Sydney and New Caledonia to Tahiti. This journey produced the paintings of his second South Sea cycle. He returned to Prague in spring 1935 by way of Martinique. In 1936 he spent a month visiting countries on the Black Sea, including the USSR, Bessarabia, Sevastopol and Yalta in Crimea. In May 1938 he traveled to Tahiti for the third time, returning to Prague in autumn of that year.

Emigration and later life

After the fall of Czechoslovakia, Kopf fled Prague via Germany and the Netherlands to Paris in March 1939. He was arrested and interned as an enemy alien for five months. He then joined the French Foreign Legion and was posted to French Morocco, but was interned again after France's capitulation. He was subsequently transferred to Martinique, where he was again interned, spending more than two years in camps in total. In 1941 he was able to emigrate to the United States and settled in New York. He received American citizenship in 1942.

In 1944 he exhibited at the American British Art Center. In the summer of 1945 he visited Prague for the last time, accompanied by Dorothy Thompson and her son. His final trip to Tahiti took place in April 1952.

Kopf died on 6 July 1958 in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He and Dorothy Thompson are buried in Barnard Cemetery.

Personal life

Kopf married the sculptor Mary Duras in Prague in 1927; they had previously spent time together in New York in 1923. The marriage ended in divorce in 1933. In 1936 he married the actress Lotte Stein in Prague; this marriage also ended in divorce in the 1940s.

In the summer of 1942 he met the journalist Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) and portrayed her at her home on the Twin Farms estate in Barnard, Vermont. They married in Barnard in 1943.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions with works by Maxim Kopf

Selected works

Maxim Kopf was a cosmopolitan painter whose works can be found in Europe and the USA.

A large number of his works were represented at art auctions.

Collections

Works by Maxim Kopf are represented in the following collections:

Miscellaneous

Kopf created an Ex Libris (bookplate) for Dorothy Thompson . It shows a female figure walking over a devil figure, carrying a book in her raised hands.

References

  1. ↑ Deutsche Biographie – Maxim Kopf, retrieved 1 September 2023.
  2. ↑ Isabart – Maxim Kopf, retrieved 1 September 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Habán, Ivo (2001). Maxim Kopf (1892–1958) (PDF) (Thesis) (in Czech). Brno: Masaryk University. pp. 103–106.
  4. ↑ Marek Nekula, Walter Koschmal and Joachim Rogall (eds.), Deutsche und Tschechen: Geschichte – Kultur – Politik, C. H. Beck, 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-45954-2, p. 246 et seq.
  5. ↑ Walter Schurian (ed.), Hilde Goldschmidt, Hartmann, Munich, 1983, pp. 9–11.
  6. ↑ Philip Hamburger, "The Talk of the Town: Mr. Kopf", The New Yorker, 25 November 1944, p. 17.
  7. ↑ American British Art Center 1944, accessed 1 September 2023.
  8. ↑ "Two Faces of Freedom", Time, accessed 1 September 2023.
  9. ↑ John J. Duffy et al. (eds.), The Vermont Encyclopedia, University Press of New England, 2003, ISBN 978-1-58465-086-7, p. 48.
  10. ↑ Dorothy Thompson to Wed Maxim Kopf, Czech, in June, St. Petersburg Times, 13 April 1943, p. 4.
  11. ↑ Habánová (2017), p. 172
  12. ↑ abánová (2013), p. 40
  13. ↑ Nationalgalerie Prag - Maxim Kopf: Poutník (1920), retrieved 1 September 2023 (tschechisch)
  14. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 44
  15. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 51
  16. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 54
  17. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 119
  18. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 138
  19. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 225
  20. ↑ Nationalgalerie Prag - Maxim Kopf: Vize (1920), retrieved 1 September 2023 (tschechisch)
  21. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 245
  22. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 246
  23. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 262
  24. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 267
  25. ↑ Habánová (2013), p. 268
  26. 1 2 Habánová (2013), p. 340
  27. ↑ Nationalgalerie Prag - Maxim Kopf: Times Square (1924), retrieved 1 September 2023 (tschechisch)
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Askart - Maxim Kopf (engl.), retrieved 1 September 2023.
  29. ↑ Nationalgalerie Prag: 130 let od narození Maxima Kopfa 2022, retrieved 1 September 2023 (tschechisch)
  30. ↑ Ausstellung der Kunstgalerie Cheb 2016, als PDF-Datei, retrieved 1 September 2023 (tschechisch)
  31. ↑ Kunstforum - Maxim Kopf: Selbstbildnis, retrieved 1 September 2023.
  32. ↑ Maxi Kopf auf Artnet, retrieved 1 September 2023.
  33. ↑ Askart: Maxim Kopf - Museums, retrieved 1 September 2023.
  34. ↑ Exlibris: Dorothy Thompson als PDF-Datei, retrieved 1 September 2023.

Works cited