Max Oppenheimer

Biography

Etchings, illustrations, paintings. Austrian. Jewish. Born 1 July 1885 in Vienna. 1900-1903: student at the Vienna Akademie. 1903-6: studied at the Prague Kunstakademie. 1906: travelled to France, Holland, Italy. 1908: returned to Vienna; contacts with the painters Kokoschka and Schiele. 1909: signs his work ‘M.OP’, then ‘M.OPP’, then ‘MOPP’. 1911: settled in Berlin; associated with the expressionist journal Die Aktion: drew title headings, portrait studies. Designed poster for his exhibition at Moderne Galerie, Munich. `Before he was 30 he had already painted fine ‘expressionist’ portraits of musicians and literary figures such as Heinrich Mann, Arthur Schnitzler, Richard Strauss, among others. 1914: brief military service; worked on the journal Kriegszeit. 1915-24: lived in Switzerland: Berne, Zurich, Geneva. 1924: returned to Vienna. 1925-33: freelance painter in Berlin (including typographic work for the Berlin Municipal Department, then Vienna. In 1937 his work removed from German museums. 1938: moved to Switzerland but emigrated in January 1939 to the USA, aided especially by Fredericke Beer-Monti, owner of the Artists’ Gallery, New York. Died 19 May 1954 (or 19 Oct.) in New York.

Writings by

  • Menschen finden ihren Maler (autobiography), Zurich, 1938.

Writings about

  • Deutscher Drucker, March 1928, p. 491 (ad for Fanfare)
  • Wilhelm Michel, Max Oppenheimer, Munich/Leipzig: Müller, 1911 (first monograph)
  • Alfred Stix, Das graphische Werk von Max Oppenheimer, Vienna, 1924
  • Max Osborn, Max Oppenheimer (Mopp), Berlin, 1927
  • Karl Schwarz, Die Juden in der Kunst, Berlin, 1928
  • A. Stix and M. Osborn, Das graphische Werk von Max Oppenheimer, 1931
  • Vollmer, 1956 (extensive bibliography)
    • Eva Mieke, ‘Der imperialistische Krieg 1914-18 im Spiegel des zyklisch-grafischen Schaffens Deutscher Künstler’, Bildende Kunst, 1960, 2, pp. 95-102
  • Max Oppenheimer (exh. cat.), Gall. Michael Papst, Vienna, 1974 (with bibliography)
  • JH/PP, 1989, p. 453
  • Günter Tobias Natter, MOPP: Max Oppenheimer (exh. cat.), Vienna: Jüdisches Museum der Stadt Wien, 1994
  • Bernhard Echte, Max Oppenheimer. Gemälde und Graphiken (exh. cat.), Baden (Switzerland): Stiftung Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown, and Munich: Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst, 1995
  • International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-45, Munich, New York, London, Paris: K.G. Saur, 1983., 1983
  • Marie-Agnes von Puttkamer, Max Oppenheimer 1885-1954/Leben und malerisches Werk, Vienna/Cologne/Weimar: Böhlau, 1999 (illustrated
  • includes brief list of MO’s writings, bibliography, and MO’s exhibitions) (and photo of stormtroopers in front of MO’s gallery, Berlin, p. 144)
  • Benezit, 2006 (bibliography, collections, auction records 1944-2004).
  • Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie, Munich, London, New Providence: K.G. Saur 1995- (from 1997: Munich only)., 1998

Exhibitions

  • Moderne Galerie, Munich, 1911
  • Galerie Moos, Geneva, 1919
  • Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, 1932
  • Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1938
  • Nierendorf Gallery, New York, 1940
  • Milwaukee Art Institute, 1940
  • Arts Club of Chicago, 1940
  • Egan Gallery, New York 1948, 1952
  • Gallerie Michael Papst, Vienna, 1974
  • Jüdisches Museum, Vienna, 1994
  • Stiftung Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown, Baden, and Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst, Munich, 1995.