Rudolf G. Bunk

Hamburg 1957-1974

Short Biography

Rudolf Gerhart Bunk was born in 1908 in Berlin. From 1926 on he studied painting with Karl Hofer in Berlin and Max Beckmann in Frankfurt.

In 1934 he took part in an exhibition of the „Darmstädter Sezession“, which was closed by the new National Socialist government, with the artists being stigmatized as „Entartet“. In the same year Bunk tried to emigrate to Switzerland without success. In 1936 he married Marianne Horl in Berlin. He tried to emigrate again, this time to Sweden, where he studied with Isaac Grunewald in the Academy of Stockholm. In 1938 tha Bunks left Germany for Austria but after a few months they endet up in Yugoslavia, in Dubrovnik and Split. Bunk continued to paint without a break . In 1940 he presented his Work in a one-man show of forty paintings in

Split and Zagreb.

In 1943, after the capitulation of the Italian Fascist government the German army invaded the Dalmatian coast. Bunk joined the Liberation Front and became a member of the Partisan Cultural Organization consisting of well-known mostly Croatian personalities, many of whom were artists.With this organization and about 30.000 Dalmatian refugees the Bunks emigrated to El-Shatt in Egypt. There Rudolf Bunk was involved in agit-prop, he designed posters and illustrated children books. He continued to paint portraits and landscapes, his main subjects.

In 1945, the Bunks returned to Split where he continued his artistic work and became, at the same time, stage designer and stage director at the Croatian National Theater in Split. Bunk also produced wall-paintings in factories, decoration works for passenger liners and the office of the Croatian Prime Minister.

As a member of the Croatian art union he regularly exhibited paintings in their annual exhibitions. In 1955 he had his second one-man show in Split with 60 paintings, drawings, gouaches.

From 1945 to 1958 he worked as director or set designer for over 120 plays, operas and ballets.

In 1958 the Yougoslav government recognized the German Democratic Republic and because of to the Halstein Doctrin, West Germany broke the diplomatic relations with Yougoslavia. All the citizens of West Germany were forced to leave Jugoslavia and despite the intervention of high ranking personalities, the Bunks, too, were expelled. After a long journey they settled in Hamburg.

In 1958-59 Bunk worked for North German Television. He also wrote a series of articles about the relation between poetry and color for the Bremen Radio, he worked as a stage designer for the theater in Celle and the Schauspielhaus in Hamburg.

Between 1960 and 1963 Bunk exhibited paintings with motives of Hamburg.

In 1969 and in 1972 he had two one-man shows in Split.

From 1966 on Bunk's health has deteriorated due to asthma.In 1974, he died in his studio in Hamburg .

In 2003, on the occasion of the 111. Jubilee of the National Theatre in Split, several national prizes were created in rememberance of prominent persons of the theater, among them " The Rudolf Bunk Prize for Stage Setting, Costumes and Design“. This prize is awarded every two years to the years best young croatian scenographer.

Rudolf Bunk belongs to the second generation of Expressionists called „The Lost Generation“ whose careers were cut short by the National Socialist Government who stigmatized their works as „entartet“. These artists are now slowly being publicly recognized and their work exhibited.

The works of Rudolf Bunk are now shown in many museums, both in Croatia and in Germany .One can find his paintings within the Archive of Literature (Schiller Archiv) and in the Academy of Arts in Berlin, where one part of Bunks artistic legacy will be housed.

My sister, Bojana Denegri, of Hamburg has been attempting to establish a place in Art History for our father's work. She has successfully organized numerous exhibitions as well as published various cataloguesof his work. In 2010 she published a Catalogue Raisonne of Bunks entire oevre.

She also published a kind of biography book about her research and findings of Bunk's lost works: "Bildersuche- auf den Spuren meines Vaters, Rudolf Bunk."

Rudolf G. Bunk

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

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