Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1914, Karl Priebe studied locally at the Layton School of Art before graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1938. His early career included working as a research ethnologist at the Milwaukee Public Museum through the Federal Art Project, where he developed an interest in diverse cultural expressions. He later served as the director of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Michigan before returning to the Layton School of Art as an instructor in 1947. His first major exhibition at Perls Galleries in New York in 1943 gained him national attention, with critics praising his sophisticated use of color and ability to evoke mystery.
Priebe was deeply connected to the jazz-influenced, bohemian circles of Chicago and Milwaukee, befriending legendary musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday, along with contemporary artists like Gertrude Abercrombie and John Wilde, who respectively made important contributions to Surrealism and Magic Realism. Priebe's work blends elements of both to generate fantastic portraits, renderings of exotic animals, and dreamlike settings.
While Priebe's style has sometimes been compared to that of Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, and Giorgio de Chirico, he was very much an American artist with respect to his themes. While a student at the Art Institute of Chicago, Priebe taught a class at a mostly Black settlement house. This experience proved pivotal, as many of Priebe's later portraits were in fact embellished depictions of his Black students from the settlement house or his entertainer friends. Not formal portraits, Priebe created these wistful works from memory, infusing them with an air of introspective melancholy.
Despite facing health challenges later in life, including the loss of an eye and a battle with cancer, Priebe remained committed to his art until his passing in 1976. His work, rich in symbolism and emotion, continues to captivate audiences, gaining renewed recognition for its visionary blend of Surrealism, cultural commentary, and personal storytelling. Priebe is now celebrated as one of the most distinctive American painters of his time and examples of his work are held by the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, and elsewhere.
