Degenerate art exhibition passes through Austin

When does artwork become degenerate? During the Nazi regime a lot of expressionist work was seen as a threat to Germany and was destroyed. But a little piece of that degenerate art can be found in East Austin.

Gus Kopriva is a petrochemical engineer who is also an avid art collector and owner of Red Bud Gallery in Houston. He loaned part of his collection of degenerate art to Flatbed Press and Gallery for an exhibit called “Broken Brushes: German Expressionists Prints by Hitler’s Degenerate Artists,” which will be shown until April 4.

“Most of these artists were in the degenerate art exhibition,” Kopriva said. “They were considered forbidden artists by the Nazi regime.”

During World War II, Hitler declared many expressionist artists degenerate because they did not follow his realist style and were considered a menace to national security. Many of the artists were forced to exile and those who stayed were not allowed to paint, and if they did they could only paint landscapes.

Out of this, Hitler created an exhibition titled “entartete Kunst” which translates into degenerate art and it was meant to cause fear of the expressionist artwork.

“It’s just so fascinating to me how politics dictated what people were supposed to do artwise,” Kopriva told the dozens of people who attended the exhibition opening. “It’s almost incomprehensible for me to even understand, I can see it from a political standpoints.”

The exhibition includes such artists as Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, Lyonel Feininger, George Grosz, and Johannes Itten. Artwork ranged from landscapes to more abstract pieces were there.

The exhibition has opened as many recent legal battles are ongoing on in the U.S. and in European countries because of restitution claims of Nazi-looted artwork.

“I will say that I don’t think that there is any question that museums around the world are often facing restitution claims,” said Andrew Shea, a University of Texas Radio-Television-Film professor and director of the documentary the “Portrait of Wally.” “Not just from the holocaust era, we have antiquity cases that are becoming and will continue in Europe and the United States.”

Kopriva realizes that there is a possibility in his collection of over 2,000 prints there could be one that was originally stolen. However, he also sees it as almost impossible to trace the provenance of the works.

“It’s not in my power to determine how this particular print got here and who own it before,” he said. “It’s not documented. I depend on the sellers and I depend on the auction houses.”

Kopriva became interested in art after his third year at the University of Houston studying engineering when he met his future wife, who was studying art. But he also realized that money couldn’t be made through art.

“I decided then to get my engineering degree and worked for a major corporation for many years,” Kopriva said. “I still do, I do consulting on the side and that’s how I make the money to feed the habit. Instead of buying stocks, or buying a lot drugs, or chasing a lot of women, or whatever I buy art cause that’s my passion.”

The reason he started to collect German art was because of his background. He was born in Germany after his mother had a relationship with a French officer from Normandy at the end of World War II.

“The relationship lasted around six months after he saw me and he ran off,” he said. “Of course the relationship between the French and the Germans was not great at that time. So I grew up in the rubble, in the bunkers, after the war.”

His collection started one piece at a time and soon it became an obsession. He started to collect prints because it was more affordable than collecting paintings.

The collection was brought to Flatbed press after Kathering Brimberry, director and owner of Flatbed Press and Gallery, had seen the exhibition at Red Bud Gallery in Houston and asked Kopriva if it would be possible.

“At the time of their creation, [these] prints were appreciated and collected,” she said. “It is one of my objectives to raise the appreciation of prints in our community and I think these prints help generate the conversation about printmaking. They also spark the remembrance of this highly creative era and the harsh censorships that were imposed.”

On opening night the gallery was crowded with people who were there to listen to Kopriva speak about his historical collection.

“The exhibit was a personal reminder to research and read about artists and their history,” freelance artist Emily Galusha said. “Each of the works had a different narrative, whether it was about the piece itself, its history or the artist’s life at the time of its creation.”

This article was written as a class assignment in January 2014.