Artist

Mariska Karasz

born Budapest, Hungary 1898-died Danbury, CT 1960
Born
Budapest, Hungary
Died
Danbury, Connecticut, United States
Active in
  • Brewster, New York, United States
Biography

Self-taught embroiderer Mariska Karasz arrived in the United States from her native Hungary at the age of sixteen. The influence of Hungary's rich folk-art tradition is reflected in her early work. As her interest in fiber art developed, Karasz began to incorporate silk, line, cotton, wool, thread, hemp, horsehair, and wood into her fiber hangings. Her materials were carefully chosen for their texture, color, and any unusual quality, such as an inconsistent dye in the yarn.

Kenneth R. Trapp and Howard Risatti Skilled Work: American Craft in the Renwick Gallery (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998)

Works by this artist (3 items)

E. McKnight Kauffer, "Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience. But nothing is a greater cause of suffering."--Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 1880. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man., 1953, India ink and gouache on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.139
Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of…
Date1953
India ink and gouache on paperboard
Not on view
E. McKnight Kauffer, Montana, from the United States Series, 1946, gouache on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.140
Montana, from the United States Series
Date1946
gouache on paperboard
Not on view
E. McKnight Kauffer, One Integrated Flow of Production, from the Early Series, 1941, photomechanical reproduction on paper mounted on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.141
One Integrated Flow of Production, from the Early Series
Date1941
photomechanical reproduction on paper mounted on paperboard
Not on view

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.11 - SAAM-2016.11_6 - 124929
Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery
November 13, 2015March 6, 2022
Connections is the Renwick Gallery’s dynamic ongoing permanent collection presentation, featuring more than 80 objects celebrating craft as a discipline and an approach to living differently in the modern world.
Media - 2019.15 - SAAM-2019.15_1 - 137377
Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women
May 31, 2024January 5, 2025
The artists in Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women mastered and subverted the everyday materials of cotton, felt, and wool to create deeply personal artworks.