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Carl Hugo Beetz
1911-1974

Carl Hugo Beetz was born December 25, 1911 in San Francisco, California. He was a prolific watercolorist and lithographer who worked in a Regionalist style and was extremely active in the California Watercolor Society.

Beetz studied in several institutions including the Art Students League in New York under George Bridgeman, Grand Central Art School with Grant Reynard and the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco under Spencer Macky and Ray Bertrand. In 1931 the artist entered Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California where he studied for four years under Pruett Carter and Lawrence Murphy.

In 1935 Beetz became an instructor at Chouinard where he taught life drawing, anatomy and quick sketches for nine years. In one catalogue of the Institute Beetz is described as “… the singular faculty…able to clarify the rudiments of drawing to beginners.”

During his time at Chouinard Beetz also illustrated for the publications Westways and Script and in 1939 traveled to Europe where he illustrated race tracks in Paris and Milan.
Beetz joined the California Watercolor Society in 1937 and exhibited with the group in 1937, 1939, 1940, 1942,1943 with an honorable mention, and in 1944. In 1940 at the Pacific Coast States Water Color Exhibition sponsored by the California Watercolor Society Emily Genauer, a reporter for the World-Telegram, praised Beetz’s work along with a handful of others among 200 works exhibited.

In 1944 Beetz moved to San Francisco where he taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts, the Academy of Advertising Art and the City College of San Francisco. Beetz became a member of the California Society of Etchers in 1954 and exhibited with the group in 1954 and 1956.

Throughout his career Beetz exhibited widely in California and other parts of the United States. Such exhibitions include: The Theodore B. Modra Exhibition of Art; The Pomona Exhibition; Foundation of Western Artists in Los Angeles on several occasions; The Riverside Museum in New York, The Redland Art Guild Exhibition where he received First Prize; San Francisco Art Association on several occasions; Art Institute of Chicago; The E.R. Pennell Exhibition of Prints at the Library of Congress; The Philadelphia Print Club; Indianapolis Print Show; The Springfield Print Show; Utah State Agricultural College; California Society of Etchers; The Oakland Art Museum and The Oakland Art Guild.

Solo exhibitions include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1942, M.H. DeYoung Memorial Museum in 1944 and The Jepson Institute in 1949.

In addition to The California Watercolor Society and The California Society of Etchers, Beetz was a member of the American Association of Professors. His work is included in the San Francisco Museum of Art permanent collection.

In 1960 Janice Lovoos wrote of Carl Beetz’s work in an article titled “The Drawings and Lithographs of Carl Beetz” in American Artist Magazine. The artist is also listed in “Who Was Who in American Art” and a catalog raisonne, “Carl Beetz: Reflections of California Life” has been published by the University of the Pacific with an essay by Natalie Phillips. Daniel P. Kasser, Kathy L. Rowley, Merrill Schleier and Brett Deboer were collaborators for the publication. Carl Hugo Beetz died in 1974.