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Grete Rikko (born Grete Rindskopf; April 13, 1908September 22, 1998) was a German-American artist associated first with the
School of Paris The School of Paris (, ) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a centre o ...
and later with
abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...
in New York City.


Early Life

Grete Rindskopf was born in Werden,
Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...
, Germany on 13 April 1908. Her father, Otto Rindskopf (15 July 1863 – 8 September 1934) was originally from Frankfurt. Her mother, Henriette (Lilienthal) Rindskopf (1 December 1871 – 19 March 1942) was originally from Hanover. Rikko had three siblings: her older sister Hilde (later Kramer; 19 December 1900 – ca. April 1942), her older brother Fritz (17 October 1903 – 13 June 1980), and her twin brother Hans (13 April 1908 – 21 October 1942. The Rindkopfs ran a textile factory that manufactured aprons, which employed up to 200 workers. Grete Rindskopf began studying art at a young age at the Volkswangschule, associated with the
Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...
in Essen. One of the most important collections of modern art in Europe, the Folkwang Museum was first established in Hagen in 1902 before moving to Essen in 1922 after the death of its founder. Here, she was exposed to the works of post-impressionist painters like
Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...
and
Vincent Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...
, as well as German expressionists like
Emil Nolde Emil Nolde (born Hans Emil Hansen; 7 August 1867 – 13 April 1956) was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the early ...
,
Wilhelm Lehmbruck Wilhelm Lehmbruck (4 January 188125 March 1919) was a German sculpture, sculptor. One of the most important of his generation, he was influenced by realism (arts), realism and expressionism. Biography Born in Meiderich (part of Duisburg from 190 ...
, and
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German Expressionism, expressionist Painting, painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expr ...
.


Career in Europe: Paris and Belgrade (1928-1938)

In the late 1920s, Grete Rindskopf—like many young artists of the era—moved to Paris, where she joined the exploding art scene later known as the School of Paris. She enrolled in the
Académie Ranson The Académie Ranson was a private art school founded in 1908 in Paris by the French painter Paul Ranson (1862–1909). History The Académie Ranson was founded in 1908 by Paul Ranson (1862–1909), who himself studied at the Académie Jul ...
art school in the
Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...
neighborhood, where she studied under the painter
Roger Bissière Roger Bissière (22 September 1886 – 2 December 1964) was a French visual artist and teacher. He designed stained glass windows for Metz cathedral and several other churches; as well as painted, and collaged textiles. Early life a ...
. She also studied with the fauvist
André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. In 2025, all of Derain’s work entered the public domain in the United States. Life and career Early ...
. In Paris, Grete Rindskopf adopted the nom d’artiste Grete Rikko. She showed her paintings in the major exhibitions of the Parisian art scene such as the Salon d'automne (1931 ) and the (1931). She also showed paintings in small group exhibits in local galleries such as Galerie Bonaparte and Jeune Europe. In the early 1930s, Rikko also began to exhibit her work in her native Germany. She had solo exhibitions in her hometown at the Galerie Schaumann in 1930 and 1932. She also participated in a small group show at the Galerie Hartberg in Berlin in 1933 and in larger exhibitions in Dusseldorf and Bochum. In 1933, Rikko moved from Paris to
Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
, then the rapidly-growing capital of
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
. She continued to paint and exhibit her works, including in a solo exhibition at the Franco-Serbian Club (Francusko-Srpskog Kluba) in December 1933.


World War II

In 1938, faced with the rise of Nazism, Rikko left Yugoslavia for the United States. Her decision to leave was prescient, as she was the only one of her siblings to evade Nazi persecution. Only a few months after Rikko landed in New York, her brother Fritz was arrested and interned in the Dachau concentration camp.. Following his eventual release from Dachau, he fled to France. There, he was incarcerated at Camp des Milles, a camp where French authorities imprisoned refugees fleeing Germany (which was then an enemy of France). Les Milles was known as the “camp des artistes” due to the many German cultural luminaries imprisoned there, and Fritz and the other classical musicians formed a detainees’ orchestra. (Due to injuries from his torture at Dachau, he was unable to play his violin and sang in the choir instead.) In 1939, Fritz successfully applied for a visa to join his sister in New York, thereby securing release from Les Milles before France under the Vichy regime allied with Nazi Germany and surrendered the prisoners at Les Milles to for deportation to the death camps. He arrived in New York in February 1940. Rikko’s other two siblings were both killed in the Holocaust. Her older sister, Hilde, initially fled to France in 1938. However, in 1942, when France rounded up foreign Jews on behalf of the Nazis, she was arrested and deported to
Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
via the
Drancy internment camp Drancy internment camp () was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, German occupation of France duri ...
. She was killed in April 1942. Rikko’s twin brother, Hans, remained in Germany with their mother. He was deported from their hometown to Poland and killed in the
Belzec extermination camp Belzec (English: or , Polish: , approximately ) was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland. It was built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major p ...
in October 1942. Safely in the United States, Rikko settled in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. She was initially supported by a scholarship from German Academy of Arts and Sciences in Exile, which funded artists and intellectuals displaced by Nazis to continue their creative work. She also participated in the artistic programming of the Friendship House, a social center for refugees established by the Greater New York Council of Churches. Friendship House provided Rikko with her first opportunity to show her work in the United States when it included her in its exhibit of European artists in exile, held at the
1939 New York World's Fair The 1939 New York World's Fair (also known as the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair) was an world's fair, international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. The fair included exhibitio ...
. This exhibit showed Rikko’s work alongside that of prominent representatives of the European avant-garde such as
Herbert Bayer Herbert Bayer (April 5, 1900 – September 30, 1985) was an Austrian and American graphic designer, painter, photographer, sculptor, art director, environmental and interior designer, and architect. He was instrumental in the development of the ...
and
Amédée Ozenfant Amédée Ozenfant (15 April 1886 – 4 May 1966) was a French cubist painter and writer. Together with Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (later known as Le Corbusier) he founded the Purist movement. Education Ozenfant was born into a bourgeois ...
. As a member of the
School of Paris The School of Paris (, ) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a centre o ...
, Rikko had been a figurative painter. Now, watching from afar as war and genocide devastated the people and places she had once painted, Rikko turned her back on figuration. She stopped painting portraits and landscapes influenced by German expressionism and French impressionism and developed a wholly new style in which she painted and collaged angular forms against backgrounds of saturated color. Although at first glance these works appeared to be pure abstraction, Rikko insisted that they carried legible meaning. Some critics agreed, including one who described Rikko’s cryptic shapes as “semi-abstractions of refugee camps” and another who wrote “the subject is still discernable even though it has been fully reduced to a symbol.” Rikko became a U.S. citizen in 1944, at which point she legally changed her last name from Rindskopf to Rikko.


New York Career (1950s-1960s)

Rikko’s artistic career peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, coinciding with the height of abstract-expressionism. It was during these decades that Rikko, aged in her 40s and 50s, held most of her solo exhibitions and attracted the most critical attention. In New York, Rikko held a series of solo exhibitions at the
Bodley Gallery The Bodley Gallery was an art gallery in New York City, from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. The Bodley specialized in contemporary art, contemporary and modern art. David Mann was director of the gallery during its heyday and Mr. and Mrs. ...
, located first at 223 East 60th Street and later at 787 Madison Avenue. The Bodley Gallery, which opened around 1950 and remained in operation until 1982, curated intimate solo exhibitions of modern and contemporary artists, including luminaries like
Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
,
Victor Brauner Victor Brauner (, also spelled Viktor Brauner; 15 June 1903 – 12 March 1966) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of the surrealism (art), surrealist movement. Early life He was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, the son of a Jewish timber manufac ...
,
René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...
,
Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren (; November 11, 1911 – November 23, 2002), usually known simply as Matta, also as Sebastián Matta or Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known Painting, painters and a seminal figure in 20th ...
, and
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
, as well as lesser-known artists like Rikko. Rikko’s own exhibitions, in 1959, 1960, and 1967 were visited by critics from Art News and the
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
, among others. In Europe, Rikko attracted new attention as an American artist. She received the most recognition in the Netherlands, where she held exhibitions in the Hague (1954), Amsterdam (1956), Arnhem (1957), and Rotterdam (1958 and 1960). These included the only museum exhibition in her career, a presentation of 36 recent works at the Gemeentemuseum Arnhem (now known as
Museum Arnhem Museum Arnhem (formerly known as Gemeentemuseum Arnhem and then Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem) is a museum of modern art, contemporary art, applied art and design in Arnhem, Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally ...
) in 1957. The Netherlands also gave Rikko her only public art commission. In 1955 Rikko and the British sculptor
Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...
were both hired to decorate a new extension to the . The Bouwcentrum (Dutch for “Building Center”) first opened in 1949 as a hall for exhibitions on modern building techniques, intended to inform the postwar reconstruction of the Netherlands. By 1954, the center had already outgrown its original space and the original architect, Joost Boks, was asked to add a new wing. Moore designed a relief in brick for the exterior of the new wing. Rikko painted an enormous abstract mural (four meters high and 16 meters long) in the interior. (Although the original Bouwcentrum still stands at Kruisplein 15, the 1955 extension was demolished in 2010 and replaced by an office building. Moore’s relief was preserved, but Rikko’s mural apparently was not.) Outside the Netherlands, Rikko exhibited at the Hanover Gallery in London in 1961 and, in the same year, at the Galerie Schaumann in her hometown of Essen, Germany, where she had held one of her first exhibitions 30 years previously.


Later Life

Rikko’s final exhibition was at the Bodley Gallery in 1967. She died in 1998.


Public Collections

Museum van Bommel van Dam Museum van Bommel van Dam is a Dutch museum of modern art in Venlo in the southeast Netherlands. The museum belongs to the German/Dutch cooperation Crossart, a partnership between 7 German museums in Westfalen and 4 Dutch museums in Gelderland ...
, Venlo, the Netherlands Grey Art Museum, New York University


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rikko, Grete 1908 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters