Jump to content

Karl Zerbe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Salmon1 (talk | contribs) at 21:32, 16 October 2007 (Biography). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Karl Zerbe
Born1903
Berlini, Germeny
DiedNovember 4, 1972
Tallahassee, Florida
Occupationexpressionist painter

Karl Zerbe (b. Berlin, Germany, 1903; d. Tallahassee, Florida, November 24, 1972) was a German-born American painter.

The works of Karl Zerbe are significant because they record “the response of a distinguished artist of basically European sensibility to the physical and cultural scene of the New World”[1]

Biography

Karle Zerbe was born 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, Friedberg . From 1921-1923 he lived in Munich, where he studied painting at the Debschitz School, mainly under Josef Eberz. From 1924-1926 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-Galerie, Berlin; in 1937, the painting was destroyed by the Nazis as “degenerative art.” From 1937- 1955 Karl Zerbe was the head of Department of Painting, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1939 Karl Zerbe became U.S. Citizen and the same year for the first time he used encaustic.


He was grouped together with the Boston painters Jack Levine and Hyman Bloom as a member of the Boston Expressionist school of painting. He served as Head of Painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from 1937 to 1955.Karl Zerbe


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, MA.

References

Books