Karl Schrag
American, born Germany, 1912 - 1995A Speaker of Good Will, 1940
Not on view
Etching and aquatint on paper
Dimensions16 1/4 × 11 7/8 in. (41.3 × 30.2 cm)
Image: 13 1/4 × 9 7/8 in. (33.7 × 25.1 cm)
Gift of Mr. Jack B. Pierson in memory of Mr. Robert Martin Purcell, 1980.64
German-American painter and printmaker, Karl Schrag, was born in Kartsruhe, Germany. He studied in Germany, Switzerland, and Paris before going to the United States in 1938. Schrag worked at the Art Students League and at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17. At the Art Students League, he learned the etching process from Harry Sternberg. The following year, 1939, Schrag’s work was included in the annual exhibition of the Society of American Etchers, and in 1942 he showed a print in the annual exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. His intaglios of this period, including A Speaker of Good Will, represent dramatic images in a poignant Social Realist style.
In 1950, he became director of Atelier 17 in New York City, and he joined the faculty of Cooper Union in 1954. His later oils, gouaches, and intaglio prints explore the relationship between the forms of nature and art.
