Biography
Karoly Fredric (or Karoly Frederic) was born in Budapest in 1898. He studied painting in Paris and architectural engineering in Berlin. During World War I, he was interned in the French capital, where he was taught by Ernst Kropp, a representative of functionalism. He arrived in New York on February 16, 1926, and in 1931 he became a US citizen.
Karoly Fredric was almost 50 years old when he participated in his first group exhibition of fine arts in 1947 at the Hugo Gallery in New York.
In 1950, Karoly had another exhibition in New York, at Eugene W. Thaw's gallery (The New Gallery). In 1951, the Museo de Art in São Paulo exhibited Karoly's surrealist-influenced works from 1948 to 1950, while in the spring of 1960, the Miami Museum of Modern Art presented his abstract expressionist works. At the end of 1961, Karoly had another solo exhibition at the Allan Stone Gallery.
At the same time, Fredric Karoly's work as an art organizer was also significant. He opened his own studio and gallery in New York, first called Industrial Design Workshop, later Perspectives. In addition, the gallery was the sole distributor of Picasso's ceramics.
For reasons unknown, Karoly refused to allow his works to be sold or exhibited from 1967 onwards. Perhaps this played a role in his reclusiveness, which was also mentioned by world-famous art dealer Leo Castelli, who was well acquainted with Karoly's work and described him as an extraordinary talent, but impossible to work with. Karoly died in 1987 at the age of 95 at the InterContinental Hotel in Manhattan, which had been his home for many years. His death was reported in the New York Times.
His works can be found in the following collections: Metropolitan (New York), Moma (New York), Whitney Museum (New York), Guggenheim (New York)
