Karl Knaths

Mature style

Knaths's mature style emerged in the early 1930s. It evolved, he said, as he "learned to move slowly from color relations, to line sequence, to better spacing, proportions, to a thematic play of shapes." While these books deal mainly with color, proportion, and Bauhaus design theory, Knaths was also interested in the relationship between music and painting and in this, it is likely his wife, Helen, who was a conservatory-trained musician and whose piano playing he enjoyed almost daily, was an influence.

Knaths's interests in theories of color, proportion, and music bore fruit in a system that, while it was mathematically influenced and employed a formal method of color selection, retained the lyricism that marks most of his work. The methodology he followed rather enhanced than inhibited his freedom of expression. In his case, as with many poets and musicians, a voluntary submission to rules of form and design seems to have helped rather than hindered him in achieving his goals. An art historian summarized this lyricism, writing that Knaths's approach to Cubism was romantic rather than academic or literal. Knaths himself wrote on this subject: "Systems are only bricks and lumber — of themselves they cannot encompass the immeasurable spiritual qualities that go into a successful picture. The unlooked-for things that happen in the process of work are the important ones."

A painting from Knaths's mature period, Pumpkin, shows his integration of the abstract Cubist idiom with a representational tabletop still life. Strong calligraphic lines demarcate planes of both bright and muted colors and the composition can be viewed as both two- and three-dimensional: either blocks of color juxtaposed in rectangular and curvilinear shapes or a foreground still-life grouping — a table holding bottle, glass, pieces of fruit, and pumpkin — within an abstract enclosed space with what appear to be windows or panels on a rear wall. The background at left bears similarity to a wall in the artist's studio shown in a photo of 1961 and this suggests that the windows or panels at right might be paintings.

Once he had established his mature style Knaths allowed himself freedom to range widely from its core elements. This is most obvious during his mid-1930s employment as artist in the WPA Federal Art Project and Composition contrast strongly with a painting he made before either of them: Maritime, a composition whose subjects are much more symbolically nautical than recognizably displayed.

Later life and work

In the early years of his marriage, Knaths, Helen, and Agnes lived on the sisters' legacy and what little money Knaths brought in through odd jobs and the occasional sale of a painting. The winter months were cold and their house so drafty that, even though Knaths disliked city life, they spent much of that season in New York. In 1924 Helen and Agnes bought land on which Knaths constructed a house and studio using materials from nearby derelict buildings. In 1926 Knaths's work appeared in another show, the Société Anonyme exhibition, held in Brooklyn, This proved to be the first of many purchases by Phillips and the beginning of a long and mutually rewarding friendship between the two men. During the next few years Phillips would write appreciative articles about Knaths's work and, in 1929, would devote a room in his Washington, D.C. gallery to their display. On opening the room he gave Knaths his first one-person show.

That year Daniel became Knaths's first art dealer. In 1931 Knaths left Daniel for the Downtown Gallery and soon after he moved, this time to the J.B. Neumann Gallery. In 1945 he moved to the gallery of Paul Rosenberg & Co., which then continued to show and sell his work during the remainder of his life. From 1943 to 1945 he taught art courses at Bennington College. Among his pupils was Dorothy Fratt.

Throughout his career, Knaths drew inspiration from the natural environment in which he lived. The images he made of his everyday world include many still lifes and room interiors as well as outdoor paintings of local fishermen and clam diggers, wild and domesticated animals, and Cape Cod marine life. His choice of subjects was generally consistent while his treatment of them varied in degree of abstraction.

While young he was one of a relatively small number of American painters whose work was termed modernist and, as he matured, he grew to be one of the best known among them. By the early 1930s critics had begun to take note of Knaths and give his work more than a passing mention. In 1931 the critic for the New York Sun could say that his work had been known in the art world for quite a few years and was fairly widely collected. While abstract, his paintings possessed, this critic wrote, "a very individual kind of realism." "One feels in his work," he went on, "a love for the medium, rich textural quality, and a very unusual color harmony which varies with the subject." By the late 1940s appreciative notices such as this one became reasonably common. Beginning about 1944 newspaper art critics more frequently would analyze and usually praise his work rather than simply listing it as appearing in a show. For example, in that year A. Z. Kruse wrote a piece about his work in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and in the late 1940s his work was featured in articles in Art News and the New York Times. In 1949 he was featured in an article by Elaine de Kooning, "Knaths Paints a Picture," in Art News.

Knaths's inaugural show in 1947 at the Paul Rosenberg Gallery was seen by one critic to be one of the ten best exhibitions of the year. In 1950 his painting Basket Bouquet won first prize in the Metropolitan Museum "American Painting Today" competition. This prize cemented his reputation as one of America's leading modernists and also marked the beginning of what would become a gradual falling off of interest in his work.

The "American Painting Today" competition touched off a rebellion by the new generation of New York painters. Calling themselves The Irascibles, a group of abstract expressionists wrote a protest complaining that the jury was hostile to the "advanced art" that they produced. The signatories were the most prominent members of what would come to be called the New York School, men such as Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still, Ad Reinhardt, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. The protest of the young painters can be seen in retrospect as a turning point in Knaths's career. During the 1950s, as abstract expressionism gained favor, his work gradually lost popularity. The transition cannot have been unexpected but there was an irony in the fact that when he was a young painter Knaths too rebelled against what he saw as the biases of traditionalist juries.

This is not to say that he stopped working. He continued to work, to show, to sell, and to accrue honors. In another interview, given two years later, he said, mildly, that too many artists "aren't willing to work for the final harmony of relationships." He believed they worked too quickly and lacked a habit of critical reflection. There remained an excellent market for Knaths's paintings during the remainder of his life and, at his death, the works left in his estate commanded relatively high prices.

Knaths died on March 9, 1971, in Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Massachusetts, after a brief illness. Before entering the hospital he was still living in the house he had built in Provincetown and his widow, Helen, continued to live there the remainder of her life. He married a woman whose name is given as Maria Theresa Dietrich or Tressie Tredeck. She came from Wisconsin, and, at about the time they were married, she and Otto Julius moved to that state from Cincinnati, Ohio. The couple lived in Eau Claire, where, in 1891, Knaths was born. Soon after, they moved to Portage, Wisconsin, where, at about age 14, young Knaths began working for his uncle, George F. Dietrich, also a baker. Aged 17 at that time, Knaths was living with his uncle as well as apprenticed to him.

Knaths and his wife Helen had no children. Helen's birth name was Lena. She changed it to Helen after 1905 when she and Agnes returned from travels in Europe. He read philosophy and classical literature as well as writings on art, music, and color theory and he loved to listen to classical music, particularly the works his wife would play on the piano. Two other names appear in official records. He gave his name as Otto George Knaths when registering for military service in the First World War. 1928 The Norman Wait Harris Prize, The Art Institute of Chicago 1932 Gold Medal, Boston Tercentenary Art Exhibition 1946 First Prize, Carnegie Institute International Exhibition 1947 Paintings of the Year Award, Pepsi-Cola Company 1948 Competitive Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, University of Illinois, Urbana 1949 Featured in the "Artist Paints a Picture" series in Art News 1950 Third Honorable Mention, Carnegie Institute International Exhibition 1950 First Prize, Metropolitan Museum, "American Painting Today," Basket Bouquet 1951 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Board of Trustees, Chicago Art Institute 1955 Election to membership to National Institute of Arts and Letters 1955 Subject of a documentary film: Karl Knaths's Cape Cod, a Motion Picture 1959 Election to membership to National Institute of Arts and Letters 1961 Brandeis University Creative Arts Award for Painting 1962 Andrew Carnegie prize, annual exhibition of The National Academy of Design 1963 National Academy of Design, Altman Prize 1964 Audubon Art Award 1965 National Academy of Design, Altman Prize 1968 Elected to National Academy of Design

Exhibitions

This is a selective list of exhibitions and gallery shows. Knaths exhibited continuously from 1927 onward. Sources are listed in notes. 1922 Provincetown Art Association 1924 Daniel Gallery, New York 1925 Provincetown Art Association (exhibitor and juror) 1926 Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington D.C., Eleven American Painters (the Phillips Memorial Gallery is predecessor of the Phillips Collection) 1927 New Chenil Galleries, London 1927 Provincetown Art Association Modernist exhibition 1927 Phillips Memorial Gallery 1927 Gallery of Living Art, New York University, Washington Square, New York 1928 Art Institute of Chicago 1928 Provincetown Art Association Modern Exhibition (exhibitor and jurist) 1929 Gallery of Living Art 1930 Provincetown Art Association Modernist exhibition (assists in hanging) 1930 Museum of Modern Art, New York, Thirty-Seven American Artists Exhibited for the First Time 1930 Daniel Gallery, Paintings and watercolors by Karl Knaths 1930 GRD Gallery, New York, Provincetown Group Show organized by Agnes Weinrich 1931 Art Students League, New York 1932 Museum of Modern Art, Murals by Forty-Nine American Painters and Photographers 1932 Art Institute of Chicago, 45th Annual American Exhibition 1932 Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., Corcoran Biennial 1933 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, New England Society of Contemporary Painters 1933 Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, Flowers in Art: An Exhibition 1934 Eighth Street Galleries, New York, Summer Work of Contemporary Artists 1934 Provincetown Art Association 1936 Whitney Museum, New York, Whitney Biennial 1940 Traveling Exhibition by the Museum of Modern Art and WPA 1941 Whitney Museum, New York, Annual Show of Contemporary Art 1942 Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Karl Knaths 1943 Riverside Museum, New York, American Abstract Painters Exhibition 1945 Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York, Solo Show 1945 Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Painting in the United States, 1945 1946 Nierendorf Gallery, New York, Art to Aid the Hungry, an exhibition with auction of works with proceeds to go to the Friends Subcommittee on Food Parcels to Europe 1946 Carnegie Institute, Painting in the United States, 1946 1947 Paul Rosenberg Gallery, Recent Paintings by Karl Knaths 1948 Paine's Gallery, Boston, Boston Society of Independent Artists 1951 Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, Recent Paintings 1952 Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, D.C., One-person Show 1959 Whitney Museum of Art, Retrospective exhibition, Four American Expressionists 1962 Rosenberg Gallery, Retrospective Show 1965 Phillips Collection, Retrospective 1971 Phillips Collection, Memorial exhibition 1972 Rosenberg Gallery, Memorial retrospective 1973 - 1974 "Karl Knaths, Five Decades of Painting," memorial retrospective, International Exhibitions Foundation. Exhibition traveled to five museums. 1981 Museum of Modern Art, An American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection 1982 Phillips Collection, Appreciations: Karl Knaths 1982 Everson Museum of Art, Woodstock, NY, Karl Knaths, 1891-1871: works on paper 1919-1930 1982 Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, Karl Knaths: Ornaments of Glory 1988 Provincetown Art Association and Museum 2005 David Findlay Jr. Fine Art, New York, American Masters & Modernists: Karl Knaths 2007 David Findlay Jr. Fine Art, Cross Currents: Milton Avery, Karl Knaths, Herman Maril 2008 Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, Azur

Collections

Knaths's works are held in many American museums. The holdings of the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., are both the most extensive and best representative. In that collection there are, in all, thirty-five oils, four watercolors, four woodcuts, three collages, and one lithograph. Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York Art Institute of Chicago Brooklyn Museum Canton Museum of Art, Canton, Ohio Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, Massachusetts Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, Massachusetts Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts Detroit Institute of Arts Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Institute, New York Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Miami, Florida Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California Los Angeles County Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York Museum of Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Modern Art, New York National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia Museum of Art Provincetown Art Association and Museum Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas Stanford University, Stanford, California Two Red Roses Foundation, Palm Harbor, Florida Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Online image galleries

Here are some sources of digital images of Knaths's work. Phillips Collection Museum of Fine Arts, Boston National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Canton Museum of Art, Ohio Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire Harvard University Art Museums Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City WikiArt, Visual Art Encyclopedia

Exhibition catalogs

This is a selective list of exhibition catalogs found on WorldCat. Cross section, number one of a series of specially invited American paintings & water colors : Phillips Collection. Washington, Phillips Memorial Gallery Karl Knaths : Buchholz Gallery, New York, 13. April - 2. May 1942. Buchholz Gallery (New York, N.Y.); New York : Buchholz Gallery, 1942. Walter Kuhn [and] Karl Knaths : [exhibition] February 27-March 27, 1944. Phillips Collection.; Washington, D.C. : Phillips Memorial Gallery, 1944. Annual exhibition of contemporary American painting; 1947. Whitney Museum of American Art. New York : Whitney Museum of American Art Recent paintings by Karl Knaths : December 8, 1947 to January 3, 1948 : Rosenberg Galleries. New York : Rosenberg Galleries, 1948. Paintings by Lee Gatch; Karl Knaths; Ben Shahn; Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Santa Barbara : Museum of Art, Four American Expressionists: Doris Caesar, Chaim Gross, Karl Knaths [and] Abraham Rattner, 1959 : Whitney Museum of American Art, 1959 Karl Knaths, George Mueller : paintings by the 1961 Creative Arts Awards Winners. Brandeis University. Goldfarb Library. Publisher: [Waltham, Mass.] : Brandeis University, Retrospective loan exhibition of paintings, 1942–1962, by Karl Knaths : December 4, 1962 to January 5, 1963, by E M Benson; Paul Rosenberg & Co. New York, N.Y. : P. Rosenberg, [1962?] Exhibition of recent paintings by Karl Knaths : October 12 to November 7, 1964. Paul Rosenberg & Co.New York : Paul Rosenberg & Co., Exhibition of recent paintings by Karl Knaths : February 3 to February 29, 1964. Paul Rosenberg & Co. New York : Paul Rosenberg & Co., 1967 Exhibition of recent paintings by Karl Knaths : November 1 to December 4, 1965. Paul Rosenberg & Co. New York : Paul Rosenberg & Co., Retrospective exhibition of paintings by Karl Knaths, April 3 - May 13, 1965, The Phillips Collection. Washington, D.C., 1965. Exhibition of recent paintings by Karl Knaths : October 16 to November 11, 1967. Paul Rosenberg & Co. New York : Paul Rosenberg & Co., 1967. Exhibition of recent paintings by Karl Knaths : January 16 to February 11, 1967. Paul Rosenberg & Co. New York, N.Y. : Paul Rosenberg & Co., Exhibition of recent paintings by Karl Knaths. New York, P. Rosenberg [1969?] Exhibition of paintings 1950-1960 by Karl Knaths : November 17 to December 20, 1969, Paul Rosenberg & Co. New York : Paul Rosenberg & Co., 1969. Ornament & glory : theme and theory in the work of Karl Knaths : [exhibition] October 9-November 12, 1982, Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Milton and Sally Avery Center for the Arts, the Bard College Center, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. : Bard College, 1982. Karl Knaths, 1891-1971 : works on paper, 1919-1930 by Jean Young; Jim Young; Everson Museum of Art. Syracuse, N.Y. : Everson Museum of Art ; Woodstock, N.Y. Exhibition catalogs Memorial exhibition : paintings from 1922 to 1971 on loan from museums and private collections. Paul Rosenberg & Co. (New York, N.Y.) New York : Paul Rosenberg & Co., 1972. Karl Knaths, five decades of painting; a loan exhibition by Isabel Patterson Eaton; International Exhibitions Foundation.; William Hayes Ackland Memorial Art Center.[Washington, International Exhibitions Foundation, 1973] Karl Knaths, "Aspects I." Paul Rosenberg & Co. New York : Paul Rosenberg & Co., 1974 Karl Knaths, "Aspects II." Paul Rosenberg & Co.[New York : Paul Rosenberg & Co., 1975] Cross currents : Milton Avery, Karl Knaths, Herman Maril : Saturday, January 6-Saturday, January 27, , David Findlay Jr. Fine Art. New York, NY : David Findlay Jr. Fine Art,