ArtistGermanb.1892–d.1960
Bruno Krauskopf
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Bruno Krauskopf was born on 9 March 1892 in Marienburg, West Prussia (now Malbork, Poland). At fourteen he left for Berlin to apprentice as a chromolithographer, a trade that grounded him in colour relationships before he encountered fine art practice. A grant opened the door to formal study at the Königliches Kunstgewerbemuseum under Professor Doeppler in 1910, and his training absorbed the charged atmosphere of Berlin on the eve of the First World War.
His early institutional commitments placed him at the centre of the German avant-garde. In 1916 he joined the Freie Secession Berlin, a breakaway exhibiting group that counted Max Beckmann and Lyonel Feininger among its members. Two years later, in the revolutionary weeks of November 1918, Krauskopf was among the founders of the Novembergruppe alongside Max Pechstein, Georg Tappert, and architect Erich Mendelsohn. The group, formed at the moment the Weimar Republic was being declared, called for a radical renewal of the relationship between art and public life. Krauskopf served on its working committee alongside Pechstein and sculptor Rudolf Belling, and remained a member of the Berlin Secession from 1917 to 1933. During these years his painting moved from the taut energies of Expressionism toward a looser, more colour-saturated Impressionism, with travel through France, Italy, and Poland feeding the brightening of his palette.
The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 forced his emigration. Krauskopf settled in Stavanger, Norway, where he found a receptive artistic community - Edvard Munch, Per Krogh, and Henrik Sorensen offered their support. In 1934 the Stavanger Museum mounted an exhibition of his work and awarded him the Stavanger Museum Prize, a mark of acceptance in his adopted country. Norwegian subjects - harbour scenes, landscapes from Ryfylke, the dramatic terrain of Lofoten - brought his colour instincts into contact with the hard northern light. When German forces occupied Norway he had to leave again.
He reached the United States in the late 1940s, settling in New York. With the backing of George Grosz, the Weyhe Gallery and Gallery Feigl introduced his work to American audiences. In 1952 he was included in the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh, one of the most visible survey exhibitions of contemporary painting at the time, where he appeared as a contemporary American artist. He painted New England landscapes and New York subjects during these years, exhibiting also in Paris, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Basel, and Berne.
In 1957 Krauskopf returned to Berlin, where he died on 23 December 1960. The Berlinische Galerie holds his 1919 painting "Das Irrenhaus" (The Madhouse) in its collection, a work from his most politically charged period. The Stadel Museum in Frankfurt has also documented his work.
On the Nordic auction market, Krauskopf appears primarily through Norwegian houses - Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner accounts for the majority of his lots, with further appearances at Ketterer Kunst, Bukowskis Stockholm, Karl & Faber, and Nyborgs Auksjoner. Top recorded prices on Auctionist sit at 60,000 NOK for Norwegian subjects including "Fra Lofoten" and "Havneparti", with several lots in the 10,000 NOK range. His Norwegian period landscapes, painted during a decade of voluntary exile, are the works most actively sought in the Scandinavian market.