Karl Hagedorn
Encyclopedia
Karl Hagedorn was a German American
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...

 painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, who worked on lithograph
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

s and etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...

s. He is not to be confused with another artist of the same name, who was born in Berlin in 1869; settled in Manchester, England in 1905; and died in 1969.

Biography

Hagedorn was born 1922 in Güntersberge
Güntersberge
Güntersberge is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 August 2009 it has been part of the borough of Harzgerode.- Geography :...

 (Harz
Harz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...

) in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. From 1956 to 1959, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich was founded 1808 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in Munich as the "Royal Academy of Fine Arts" and is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany...

 in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, designing and executing mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

s and mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...

s. In 1959 he emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where he lived and worked in St. Paul, Minnesota as a free-lance artist. From 1962 to 1965 he designed stained glass windows and became Art Director at the Catholic Digest
Catholic Digest
Catholic Digest is an American Roman Catholic monthly magazine.It was founded in 1936 and today circulation totals 300,000.In December 2001, the French Roman Catholic media group Bayard Presse purchased the magazine from University of St. Thomas...

. From 1960 to 1972 he was a faculty member of St. Paul Art Center and in 1971 and 1972, also a faculty member of Hamline University
Hamline University
-Red Wing location :Hamline was named in honor of Leonidas Lent Hamline, a bishop of the Methodist Church whose interest in the frontier led him to donate $25,000 toward the building of an institution of higher learning in what was then the territory of Minnesota. Today, a statue of Bishop Hamline...

, both in St.Paul. He then traveled for six months through Europe, before returning to USA. From 1973 to 1997 he worked and lived in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. In 1998, he moved to Philadelphia, where he died in October 2005. Since 1967 his works have been shown frequently in both one-man and group exhibitions in the United States and Europe. He had numerous individual exhibitions in galleries, and participation in museum and group exhibitions. His work is represented in many public collections, including the Neues Museum Nürnberg
Neues Museum Nürnberg
Neues Museum Nürnberg is a museum for modern and contemporary art and design in Nuremberg, Germany. It was opened in April 2000....

.

Awards

1966: First Award for Graphic, Minnesota State Fair Exhibition and
Purchase Award / "Drawing USA", St. Paul Art Center.
1967: Merit Award, "Minnesota Biennal", Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Work

Karl Hagedorn was always interested in one theme: Man and machine. "In the early USA paintings of Karl Hagedorn, there appear, at first sparingly and later on in increasing numbers technical components - fragmnets of machinery, graphic elements, traffic and sign symbols. The more the human figure becomes abstract and geometrical, almost robot-like, the more the abstract parts become humanized, softer and more supple, as if they wished increasingly to assume a human nature."(Wolfgang Horn quoted in Hagedorn,1998)

Quotes

"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)

Publication

Karl Hagedorn - European Roots - American Blossoms, edited by Klaus D.Bode, Nürnberg 1998, ISBN 3-9802859-6-0

External links

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