Karl Zerbe Art

Closed Doors, 1957, polymer tempera on Masonite, signed lower right, 20 x 40 inches, inscribed verso “Zerbe Closed Doors June 1957,” label verso reads: “Artist Karl Zerbe / No. T / T...

Karl Zerbe (1903-1972) A mixed-media Painting collage of mod neon colored leaves on canvas with parchment backing. Hand signed "Zerbe" bottom left and dated bottom right 1965-65. Dimensions: Collage: 36 in tall x 24 in wide. Frame: 40 in tall x 28 in wide. Karl Zerbe (1903 – 1972) was a German-born American realist painter and educator. Karl Zerbe was born on September 16, 1903 in Berlin, Germany. The family lived in Paris, France from 1904–1914, where his father was an executive in an electrical supply concern. In 1914 they moved to Frankfurt, Germany where they lived until 1920. Karl Zerbe studied chemistry in 1920 at the Technische Hochschule in Friedberg, Germany. From 1921 until 1923 he lived in Munich, where he studied painting at the Debschitz School, mainly under Josef Eberz. From 1924 until 1926 Karl Zerbe worked and traveled in Italy on a fellowship from the City of Munich. In 1932 his oil painting titled, ‘’Herbstgarten’’ (autumnal garden), of 1929, was acquired by the National-Gallery, Berlin; in 1937, the painting was destroyed by the Nazis as "Degenerate art." Entartete Kunst was what they deemed all the Avant Garde, Modernism Movements. In the visual arts, sucf innovations as Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, Bauhaus, Post Impressionism were disdained. Artists such as Käthe Kollwitz, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Max Beckmann, Max Ernst, Oskar Kokoschka, El Lissitzky, Franz and Marc Chagall were among those who despite having made significant contributions to the German modernist movement were banned even if they were not necessarily Jewish. From 1937 until 1955, Karl Zerbe was the head of the Department of Painting, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1939 Karl Zerbe became a U.S. citizen and the same year for the first time he used encaustic. He joined the faculty in the Department of Art and Art History at Florida State University in 1955, where he taught until his death. He was grouped together with the Boston artists Kahlil Gibran (bronze sculpture), Jack Levine and Hyman Bloom as a key member of the Boston Expressionist school of painting, and through his teaching influenced a generation of painters,[including, among others, David Aronson, Bernard Chaet, Reed Kay, Arthur Polonsky, Jack Kramer, Barbara Swan, Andrew Kooistra, and Lois Tarlow. Select solo exhibitions 1922: Gurlitt Gallery, Berlin, Germany 1926: Georg Caspari Gallery, Munich, Germany; Kunsthalle, Bremen, Germany; Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany 1934: Germanic Museum (now Busch-Reisinger Museum), Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937: Marie Sterner Galleries, New York City 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940: Grace Horne Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts 1941: Vose Galleries, Boston; Buchholz Gallery, New York City 1943: Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts 1943, 1946, 1948, 1951, 1952: The Downtown Gallery, New York City 1943, 1947: Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts 1945, 1946: Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois 1946: Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan 1948, 1949: Philadelphia Art Alliance, Pennsylvania 1948, 1955: Boris Mirski Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts 1950: Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York 1951-1952: Retrospective Exhibition circulated by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, traveled to: Baltimore Museum of Art; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire; Florida Gulf Coast Art...

Zerbe, Karl (American, 1903-1972). THE BOTTLE #1. Ink, gouache, and collaged paper on textured rice paper, 1962. Signed, titled and dated within the image. 17 x 22 3/4 (image), frame...