The Art of Karl Hagedorn

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Born in 1922 in Guentersberge, Germany, Karl Hagedorn studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.  For a number of years, he designed and executed mosaics, murals, and stained glass windows until he emigrated to the United States. Living in St. Paul, Minnesota, he worked as a free-lance artist and taught at Hamline University and the St. Paul Art Center. His first major solo exhibition was at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis with frequent one man and group shows in the US and Europe from then on.  From 1973-1998, he lived and worked in New York City, moving with his wife to Philadelphia.  He continued to paint and exhibit his work right up to his death in 2005.

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"Symbolic Abstraction" was the term Hagedorn used to reference his work, which spanned the 1950s to the 21st century. He employed the mediums of painting, drawing, watercolor and gouache. Through the decades the connective tissue throughout his output was his vivid colors, forms, and shapes.

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"My painting developed itself from the human form. Herein lies the key to all future works. The mechanism of the organic, the electrical-chemical-physical system of the brain, the neurological system ... - all of this interests me more and more. I understand these things indirectly [...] to interpret, to react to them ... In this respect, mechanical elements, graphic and cartographic symbols, words or parts of words, letters and figures represent connections to the human system [...]. The human figure, in its external appearance, disappeared from my paintings; the configuration of an idea or idea or image of humans - in the cosmos - is what I try to make visible."

                                                                      -Karl Hagedorn in conversation with Curt Heigl

 

 

Exhibitions and Selected Collections

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Solo Exhibitions

2006 Memorial Exhibition, Boston International Fine Art Show

2006 Memorial Exhibition, Galerie Bode, Nuremberg, Germany

2005 Garrubo-Bazan Gallery, West Chester, Pa.

2004 Galerie Herrmann, Neumarkt, Germany

2003 Garrubo-Bazan Gallery, West Chester, Pa.

2003 Galerie Bode, Nuremberg, Germany

2002 Kunstverein Wernigerode, Wernigerode, Germany

2001 Galerie GEK, Schwaebisch Gmuend, Stuttgart, Germany

2001 Galerie Bode, Nuremberg, Germany

1999 Galerie Goldbach, Stadtallendorf, Germany

1998 Galerie Bode, Nuremberg, Germany

1997 Galerie Bode, Nuremberg, Germany

1996 Galerie Heseler, Munich, Germany

1995 Martin Sumers Gallery, New York, NY

1994 Galerie Rehklau, Augsburg, Germany

1993 Galerie Heseler, Munich, Germany

1992 Virginia Lust Gallery, New York, NY

1992 Eva Cohon Gallery, Chicago, Ill.

1991 Galerie Heseler, Munich, Germany

1991 Galerie Stolz, Cologne, Germany

1991 Villa Dessauer, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Bamberg, Germany

1989 Consulate General of Germany, New York, NY

1987 Galerie Rehklau, Augsburg, Germany

1985 Kaiser Galerie, Nuremberg, Germany

1984 Galerie Heseler, Munich, Germany

1984 Galerie Rehklau, Augsburg, Germany

1983 Baukunst Galerie, Cologne, Germany

1983 Galerie Brusberg, Hannover, Germany

1982 Galerie Heseler, Munich, Germany

1981 Kunsthalle Nuernberg, Nuremberg, Germany

1981 Jack Gallery, New York, NY

1981 Galerie Rehklau, Augsburg, Germany

1980 Monahan Gallery, Milwaukee, Wis.

1979 Goethe Institute, New York, NY

1979 Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer, New York, NY

1978 Galerie Rehklau, Augsburg, Germany

1976 Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer, New York, NY

1974 Galleria Galatea, Milano, Italy

1973 Galerie Heseler, Munich, Germany

1971 Hamline University, St. Paul, Minn.

1971 Martin Gallery, Minneapolis, Minn.

1970 Gallery / University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.

1970 Minnesota Museum, St. Paul, Minn.

1970 Martin Gallery, Minneapolis, Minn.

1969 Martin Gallery, Minneapolis, Minn.

1968 Carlton College, Northfield, Minn.

1967 Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minn.

1967 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minn.

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A Selection of Group Shows

2003 International Elements of Geometry, Minnesota University, Marshall, Minn.

2000 International Artists Exhibition, Aras Galerie, Ravensburg, Germany

2000 Newman Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa.

1995 Works on Paper, Amory Show, New York, NY

1994 Works on Paper, Amory, New York, NY

1993 International Print Fair, Armory Show, New York, NY

1990 Basel Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland

1990 Gimpel and Weizenhoffer, New York, NY

            (also 1974, 1974, 1977, 1978)

1987 Galerie Stolz, Cologne, Germany

1986 Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany

1984 Cologne Art Fair, Cologne, Germany

1978 Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Ind.

1977 Weyhe Gallery, New York, NY

1977 Galerie die Insel, Munich, Germany

1968 St. Paul Art Center, “Drawing USA,” St. Paul, Minn.

1968 Weatherspoon Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC

1968 “Art across the USA,” Dayton, Ohio

1967 Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minn.

1966 National Academy of Design, New York, NY

1964 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minn.

 

Selected Collections

New York Public Library, Print Collection, New York, NY

Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minn.

Kunsthalle Nuernberg, Nuernberg, Germany

Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minn.

Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, Minnesota

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Bamberg, Germany

Deutsches Museum/Strobel Collection, Munich, Germany

Goethe Institute, New York, NY

Hamline Univ ersity, St. Paul, Minn.

University of California, San Francisco, Calif.

University Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, Conn.

General Electric, Bridgeport, Conn.

Prudential Insurance, New York, NY

Owens-Corning Fiberglass, Toledo, Ohio

Liquid Paper Corporation, Dallas, Texas

Numerous Private Collections in Europe and the United States

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