Skip to main content
Photo Credit: Ed Watkins, 2007
Mariska Karasz
Photo Credit: Ed Watkins, 2007
Photo Credit: Ed Watkins, 2007

Mariska Karasz

United States, 1898–1960
Place of BirthBudapest, Hungary
BiographyMariska Karasz learned to sew in Hungary as a girl. When she came to the United States in 1914, she began a career as a fashion designer. In the 1920s and 1930s, she made custom women's and children's clothing, combining a Hungarian folk influence with contemporary American styles. In the late 1940s, Karasz began working on embroidered wall hangings. Her pieces, which became progressively more abstract with time, were influential for the burgeoning Studio Craft Movement, as was her 1949 book entitled Adventures in Stitches.
Education: Cooper Union Art School