Grete Wolf Krakauer

Grete Wolf Krakauer née Wolf (1890–1970) was an Austrian-Israeli painter.

Grete Wolf Krakauer
Born
Grete Wolf

1890 (1890)
Moravia, Austria-Hungary
Died1970 (aged 79–80)
Jerusalem, Israel
NationalityAustrian-Israeli
EducationUniversity of Applied Arts Vienna
Known forPainting
Spouse(s)Leopold Krakauer

Biography

Wolf Krakauer was born in Witkowitz, Moravia, on December 10, 1890,[1] to a relatively assimilated, middle class Jewish family.[2] One year later, her family moved to Vienna, where she received a modern education and was introduced to the latest ideas in art and philosophy, such as socialism and psychoanalysis.[2] She studied art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.[3] She went on to travel and study with Johannes Itten, Albert Weisgerber and Adolf Hölzel.[4] Her first solo exhibition was at the Kunstsalon Heller in Vienna in 1913, just before World War I began.[1] She joined an avant-garde group of artists, the Bund der Geistig, and met her future husband, Leopold Krakauer.[2] She became known for her portraits, painting leading figures in Red Vienna,[2] and her work was included in the 1922 Venice Biennale.[3]

In 1924, her husband moved to Jerusalem and she followed, along with their daughter Trude, a few months later.[2] Instead of becoming active in the local art scene, she continued to develop her career in Europe exhibiting her work there and traveling there frequently until rising anti-Semitism made this impossible in 1932.[2] Almost her entire family was murdered in the Holocaust and she only returned to Europe once after 1932.[2]

In pre-state Israel (the Yishuv), Zionist organizations such as the Jewish National Fund and Keren Hayesod commissioned paintings from Wolf Krakauer of pioneering settlements.[2] She also created documentary sketches of the Peel Commission proceedings and established the Marionette Theatre, a puppet theater.[1] She traveled widely and her work was exhibited in Australia, South Africa, and Thailand as well as in Jerusalem.[1] In 1969, Wolf Krakauer was the recipient of the Jerusalem Prize for Painting and Sculpture. She died in 1970 in Jerusalem.[4]

Legacy

Wolf Krakauer was included in the 2017 exhibition The Better Half: Jewish Women Artists Before 1938 at the Museum Dorotheergasse.[5] Wolf Krakauer was the subject of a 2018 retrospective, Grete Wolf Krakauer: From Vienna to Jerusalem at the Mishkan Museum of Art.[6] Her work was included in the 2019 exhibition City Of Women: Female artists in Vienna from 1900 to 1938 at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.[7]

References
  1. Sheffi, Smadar (2018). Grete Wolf Krakauer: From Vienna to Jerusalem. Exhibition Catalogue (in English and Hebrew). Ein Harod: Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod.
  2. Gleit, Heidi (2018). "From Red Vienna to Jerusalem". ERETZ Magazine. 167: 56–65.
  3. "Greta Wolf-Krakauer". AskArt. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  4. "Greta Krakauer Wolf". Information Center for Israeli Art. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  5. "The Better Half: Jewish Women Artists Before 1938". Jüdisches Museum Wien. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  6. "Grete Wolf Krakauer: From Vienna to Jerusalem". המשכן לאמנויות. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  7. "City of Women". Belvedere Museum Vienna. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
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