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. 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. 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. 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.

Exhibitions Exhibitions with works by Maxim Kopf The Pilgrim (1920), National Gallery Prague Conception (1920–21), National Gallery Prague Buddha (1920), Liberec Regional Gallery Religious Theme (1924), Narodní památkový ústav (NPÚ) Prague, Hořovice Castle After the bath (1930), private collection View of Prague (1937), Gallery of the Capital Prague Vision (1920), National Gallery Prague Lovers (1925), Gallery Zlatá Husa Prague Portrait of the sculptor Mary Duras at work (1928), Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg Dance Bar (1920), Liberec Regional Gallery Tupuraa, Tahiti (1934), private collection Tahiti (1934), Zlatá Husa Gallery Prague Times Square (1924), National Gallery Prague Columbus Circle (1924–25) (lost) Montrouge (1927) Falkenau coal mine (1929) Self-Portrait (1929), Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg Tahitian women Everson Museum of Art Hood Museum of Art Memorial Art Gallery Brooklyn Museum of Art Museum of Modern Art in New York Saint Louis Art Museum National Gallery Prague Liberec Regional Gallery Moravian Gallery in Brno

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.