Born in 1922 in Guentersberge, Germany, Karl Hagedorn studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. For a number of years, he designed and executed mosaics, murals, and stained glass windows until he emigrated to the United States. Living in St. Paul, Minnesota, he worked as a free-lance artist and taught at Hamline University and the St. Paul Art Center. His first major solo exhibition was at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis with frequent one man and group shows in the US and Europe from then on. From 1973-1998, he lived and worked in New York City, moving with his wife to Philadelphia. He continued to paint and exhibit his work right up to his death in 2005.
"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)