Karl Schrag was born in Karlsruhe Germany in 1912. His father was German and his mother American. He graduated from Humanistiches Gymnasium in 1930 and began to study art, first in Geneva and then in Paris, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, at the Atelier of Lucien Simon, the Academie Ranson and La Grande Chaumiere. In 1938 he came to the United States and studied at the Art Students League and at Atelier 17 with Stanley William Hayter. He was director of Atelier 17 in 1950 and taught graphic arts at Brooklyn College in 1953-54. Working in the modernist syle he produced landscapes and figures, working as a painter and printmaker.  He spent many summers in the state of Maine and this is reflected in much of his work.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Galeries Arensberg, Brussels 1938; Smithsonian Institution 1945; University of Alabama 1949; Philadelphia Art Alliance 1953; University of Maine 1953, 1958; State University of New York, Oneonta 1953, 1959; Gesellschaft der Freunde Junger Kunst in Baden-Baden 1958, 1961; Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe 1958; Storm King Art Center 1967; Kraushaar Galleries 1947,1950, 1952, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1968


RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
Schrag was one of 12 artists chosen for a retrospective exhibition of paintings and prints organized by the American Federation of Arts.

 

AWARDS
Purchase awards at Brooklyn Museum Print Annuals 1947, 1950; Bradley University 1952; Society of American Graphic Artists 1954, 1962, 1967; Lea Prize at Philadelphia Print Club 1954; American Color Print Society in Philadelphia 1958; Bay Printmakers Purchase Award in Oakland 1959; Florence Tonner Prize 1960, 1963; Wells Sawyer Award at Sarasota Art Association 1960; Otis Art Institute Purchase Award 1961; Certificate of Merit 4th International Exhibition of Contemporary Art at New York State Exposition 1963; Sonia Watter Award at American Color Print Society 1964; Ford Foundation Fellowship for study at Tamarind 1962; Grant in art from American Academy of Arts & letters 1966; Albion College Purchase award 1968


The artist was a member of the jury for the National Fulbright Awards. He was featured with four artists in the film "Printmakers U.S.A." produced by the U.S.I.A. which has also purchased his prints.


COLLECTIONS
Aachenbach Collection California Palace of the Legion of Honor; University of Alabama; Atlanta University; Bethlehem City Center; Biblioteque Nationale; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Bradley University; Brandeis University; Brooklyn Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; Cleveland Museum; Dartmouth College; Detroit Institute of Arts; Joslyn Art Museum; Lehigh University; Library of Congress; University of Illinois;Los Angeles County Museum; University of Maine; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Munson-Williams Proctor Institute; Museum of Modern Art; National Gallery of Art; New York Public Library; Oakland Municipal Art Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Rhode Island School of Design; Smithsonian Institution; Staatliche Kunsthalle; Syracuse University; Rockefeller University; State University of New York at Oswego; Wadsworth Atheneum; Whitney Museum of American Art; Yale University

Works by Karl Schrag