Edmund Kopietz (1900 - 1988)

  

Ed Kopietz was born in the small town of Everest, Kansas.  While he was a child his family moved to Wichita and this is where Ed grew up, attended school and became associated with C. A. Seward.  When he was in high school his interests in art were encouraged by his teachers and he worked as a member of the art staff of the school annual. 

 

After graduating from high school Kopietz continued his studies with Elizabeth Sprague who headed the art department at Fairmount College (now Wichita State University) During this time Kopietz’s work also caught the eye of Ed and Faye Davidson and with their financial assistance he left Wichita in 1920 to attend the Chicago Art Institute.  His talents were also recognized at the Art Institute for within three years he was offered a teaching position at the Institute’s school.

 

By 1928, Kopietz received an offer to join the staff at the Minneapolis School of Art. The following year he became the director of the school, a position he held until his retirement in 1950. After his retirement, he opened his own studio and provided design services for various Minneapolis companies including several professional publications such as the American Medical journal.  Later he became an art director of the Augsburg Publishing House, a company in Minneapolis founded in 1891, which by this time had become the publishing arm of the Lutheran Church.

 

Primarily a painter, especially of water colors, Kopietz never entered a print in the competition at the Minnesota State Fair or the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He did however, win honors for his work as a painter including; at the Minneapolis Art Institute, watercolor honorable mention, and second award in painting in 1929; watercolor honorable mention in 1930; first award in painting in 1935; first award in watercolor, second award in gouache, third in watercolor in 1943. He won the gold medal at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1935.  His work is included in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Wichita Art Museum, and the McPherson, Kansas, Municipal Collection.