RABUS, CARL JOHANN (1898-1983)

“Die Ankündigung (The Annunciation)” (c.1930)
Original woodblock print
75 x 63.5cm
Signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Rabus was a prominent German Expressionist, Holocaust Survivor & Degenerate Artist. He studied under Angelo Jank at the Art Academy in Munich. After various art exhibitions organized by Hans Goltz in Munich & by Der Sturm in Berlin Rabus worked as a book & art illustrator in Berlin from 1923 till 1927. His works were published by several magazines like Eulenspiegel, Der Orchideengarten & Jugend. Along with contemporaries including Jacob Steinhardt, Richard Janthur, Heinrich Richter-Berlin, & Conrad Felixmüller, Rabus "revived the techinques of woodcut & wood-engraving synonymous with the Die Brücke circle of artists & German Expressionism". Upon the Nazi takeover in Germany in 1933, Rabus moved to Vienna, Austria, where he met his wife-to-be, Jewish photographer Erna Adler. However, they soon had to leave the country because of the imminent annexation to the Third Reich. They fled to Brussels but in 1940 they were arrested in Belgium after the invasion of the German Army. Erna Adler was released but Rabus was incarcerated at the detention camp Saint-Cyprien in Southern France. In 1941 he was able to escape from the camp & he returned to Brussels. There he was arrested again in 1943 on a charge of Rassenschande. Rabus was deported & had to spend some time in the Vienna City Prison.