Karl Zerbe

The recorded working language is English, German and French. The field of work recorded is painting. Places of work recorded in the authority are Boston. Employment is recorded with School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Work by Karl Zerbe is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art, Städel Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Buffalo AKG Art Museum.

• Name — Karl Zerbe • Born — 16 September 1903 • Birthplace — Berlin, German Empire • Died — 24 November 1972 • Place of death — Tallahassee, Florida, United States • Education — Technische Hochschule Friedberg, Debschitz School • Movement — Expressionism • Spouse — Marion Zerbe • Employer — School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University • Known for — painting

• Illustration — Zerbe's painting Beacon Hill, held by the Detroit Institute of Arts Zerbe was born on September 16, 1903, in Berlin, Germany. The family lived in Paris, France, from 1904 to 1914, where his father was an executive in an electrical supply concern. In 1914 they moved to Frankfurt, Germany where they lived until 1920. Zerbe studied chemistry in 1920 at the Technische Hochschule in Friedberg, Germany. From 1921 until 1923 he lived in Munich, where he studied painting at the Debschitz School, mainly under Josef Eberz. From 1924 until 1926 Zerbe worked and traveled in Italy on a fellowship from the City of Munich. In 1932 his oil painting titled, ‘’Herbstgarten’’ (autumnal garden), of 1929, was acquired by the National-Galerie, Berlin; in 1937, the painting was destroyed by the Nazis as "Degenerate art." From 1937 until 1955, Zerbe was the head of the Department of Painting, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1939 Zerbe became a U.S. citizen and the same year for the first time he used encaustic. He joined the faculty in the Department of Art and Art History at Florida State University in 1955, where he taught until his death. He was grouped together with the Boston artists Kahlil Gibran (sculptor), Jack Levine and Hyman Bloom as a key member of the Boston Expressionist school of painting, and through his teaching influenced a generation of painters, including, among others, David Aronson, Bernard Chaet, Reed Kay, Arthur Polonsky, Jack Kramer, Barbara Swan, Andrew Kooistra, and Lois Tarlow. His works are thought significant because they record "the response of a distinguished artist of basically European sensibility to the physical and cultural scene of the New World".

• 1922: Gurlitt Gallery, Berlin, Germany • 1926: Georg Caspari Gallery, Munich, Germany; Kunsthalle, Bremen, Germany; Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany • 1934: Germanic Museum (now Busch-Reisinger Museum), Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts • 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937: Marie Sterner Galleries, New York City • 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940: Grace Horne Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts • 1941: Vose Galleries, Boston; Buchholz Gallery, New York City • 1943: Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts • 1943, 1946, 1948, 1951, 1952: The Downtown Gallery, New York City • 1943, 1947: Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts • 1945, 1946: Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois • 1946: Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan • 1948, 1949: Philadelphia Art Alliance, Pennsylvania • 1948, 1955: Boris Mirski Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts • 1950: Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York • 1951-1952: Retrospective Exhibition circulated by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, traveled to: Baltimore Museum of Art; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire; Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, Clearwater; M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; • 1954: The Allan Gallery, New York City • 1958: Florida State University, Tallahassee; Ringling Brothers Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida • 1958, 1959, 1960: Nordness Gallery, New York City • 1960: New Arts Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia • 1961-1962: Retrospective Exhibition circulated by The American Federation of Arts, Boston University