Grete Rikko (born Grete Rindskopf; April 13, 1908 – September 22, 1998)^[1] was a German-American abstract expressionist who lived most of her life in New York City. She was the sister of musicologist Fritz Rikko.^[2]

Education and early career

Rikko was born in Germany and studied painting at the Volkswangschule in Essen. In 1928, she relocated to Paris and enrolled in the Académie Ranson. In Paris, Rikko studied under Roger Bissière and André Derain and participated in several group exhibitions. In 1933, she relocated to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where she held several solo exhibitions. During her time in Paris and Belgrade, Rikko made study trips to Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, where she painted landscapes and portraits.^[3]

New York years

In 1937, Rikko immigrated to the United States and settled in Greenwich Village. Rikko’s painting style changed radically after her move to the United States. A 1955 reviewer wrote that, “[i]n Europe, her art was more or less impressionistic, but on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean she was converted to abstract art or she puts it herself to abstract-impressionalism.” Describing her new work, Rikko stated that “the subject is still discernable even though it has been fully reduced to a symbol.”^[4]

Rikko exhibited widely in the United States and in Western Europe during the 1950s and 1960s, including at the Gemeentemuseum (Arnhem, Netherlands), the Bodley Gallery (New York), and the Bouwcentrum (Rotterdam, Netherlands). In 1956, Rikko was commissioned to paint a mural in the Bouwcentrum, which also featured a site-specific sculpture by Henry Moore.^[5]

Selected solo and group exhibitions

• Gemaelde Galerie Schaumann, Essen, 1930
• Künsthalle, Düsseldorf, 1930
• Salon d’Automne, Paris, 1931
• Jeune Europe, Paris, 1932
• Gemaelde Galerie Schaumann, Essen, 1932
• Künsthandlung Viktor Hartberg, Berlin, 1933
• Franzusko-Srpskog Klubam, Belgrade, 1933
• Franzusko-Srpskog Klubam, Belgrade, 1937
• New Americans of Friendship House, New York World's Fair, 1939
• Carroll College, Helena, Montana, 1941
• British Art Center, New York, 1945
• Village Art Center, New York, 1949
• Village Art Center, New York, 1953
• Village Art Center Eleven Year Retrospective Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1954
• Kunstzaal Plaats, the Hague, 1954
• Magdalena Sothmann, Amsterdam, 1956
• Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem, 1957
• Galerie t'Venster, Rotterdam, 1958
• Bodley Gallery, New York, 1959
• Bodley Gallery, New York, 1960
• The Little Gallery, Philadelphia, 1960
• Cocoa-Tree LTD, Atlanta, 1960
• Bouwcentrum, Rotterdam, 1960
• G Gemaelde Galerie Schaumann, Essen, 1961
• Hanover Gallery, London, 1962
• Bodley Gallery, New York, 1967^[6]

References