Gopas was born in Siluté, Germany in 1913. His parents were Pranas Gopas, a machinery merchant, and Marte Plauschin. Gopas' birthplace was near Nidden, a fishing village with a popular artists colony.
Education
Gopas studied painting at the School of Fine Arts in Kaunas from 1933 to 1938. While studying, Gopas travelled in Germany, Austria, Italy, Latvia and Greece.
Career
During the occupation of Lithuania by German military during World War II, Gopas served in the German army. He married Natalija Seeberg in 1942, in Ventspils, Latvia, and their daughter Sylvia was born in 1944. When the Russian army invaded later that year, the Gopas family fled to Germany. From 1944-1948, they lived in a refugee camp at Ehrwald, and Gopas made a living producing portrait and landscape paintings. In June 1949, Gopas, his wife, daughter and mother-in-law travelled to New Zealand on an Irish boat, the Dundalk-Bay, which brought New Zealand Government-assisted immigrants from central and eastern Europe. The family arrived in Wellington on 27 June 1949, and were housed temporarily at the Pahiatua refugee camp. They were resettled in Dunedin, and Gopas found work as a photo-processor with Coulls Somerville Wilkie Limited. Once settled in New Zealand, Gopas began to re-establish himself as a painter. From 1949-1953, Gopas exhibited works at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington, and from 1951, he began to exhibit at the Otago Art Society. In 1951, Gopas and others formed The Independent Group, in response to The Group in Christchurch. Gopas was a regular exhibitor with The Group until its cessation in 1977. In 1953, Gopas left his wife and daughter in Dunedin and moved to Christchurch, where he worked for a photographic firm. He and his wife divorced in 1957. In Christchurch, on 25 November 1958, Gopas married the radio broadcaster Airini Nga Roimata Grennell. Gopas was appointed as a temporary assistant lecturer in painting at the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury in 1959, and took up a permanent position in 1960. His students included Philip Trusttum, Philippa Blair, Philip Clairmont, Vivien Bishop, Gavin Bishop, Tony Fomison, John Coley, Barry Cleavin and Kura Te Waru Rewiri. Gopas was considered by his students to be a "lively and controversial teacher His reputation was not based so much on his painting as on his ability as a talker about art, and as a stirrer." In 1976, Gopas and his second wife separated, and in 1977 Gopas resigned from his teaching role at the university and travelled to Ehrwald, Austria. He quickly became disillusioned and returned to New Zealand.
Exhibitions
Exhibition of paintings by Rudolf Gopas, at Kendal Nisbet, Dunedin. Group Loan Show, at the Christchurch Art Gallery. Galactic Landscapes 1965 - '67, at New Vision Gallery, Auckland. Paintings for the Sun, at the Christchurch Art Gallery. Rudolph Gopas: A Retrospective Exhibition at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth. This exhibition subsequently toured throughout New Zealand during 1982-1984. Gopas and His Students: Gopas, Clairmont, Frizzell, Trusttum, Te Waru Rewiri at Ferner Galleries, Auckland.
Illness and death
After Gopas' return to New Zealand in the late 1970s, his mental health deteriorated and he was committed to Sunnyside Hospital for periodic treatment. Suffering from alcoholism, Gopas' condition deteriorated, and after his circulation became impaired his left leg was amputated above the knee. He made a partial recovery from this surgery before complications arose. On 23 July 1983, two weeks before the scheduled opening of the first exhibition dedicated to his life's work, Gopas died of a heart attack caused by arteriosclerosis, at his home in Christchurch. He was survived by his wife, and his daughter from his first marriage.
