St. Olaf College

Fred Ralph Hagstrom

Contemporary
United States
b. b. 1954
View objects by this artist.

Fred Ralph Hagstrom was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1954. He attended the University of Chicago from 1975 until 1976, then received his BA from Hamline University in 1977. In 1980, he studied under the English painter and printmaker Stanley William Hayter at the Atelier 17 studio in Paris, France. Hagstrom then returned to the United States and earned his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1982 before going on to work for a year as a replacement instructor at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Since 1984, he has served as the Rae Shupack Nathan Professor of Art at Carleton College in Minnesota, although in both 1992 and 1999 he taught with the Associated Colleges of the Midwest-Chicago Arts Program in the fall semesters.

Hagstrom works primarily in printmaking and book art, and draws from their historical implications in politics and social relations to inform and inspire his own works. He also draws inspiration from nature, especially that of the South Pacific, where he takes a group of students every other year, as well as Japanese art. Much of his art is related to the current ecological crisis of the modern world. Hagstrom’s more recent artworks are more abstracted, although he did work figuratively for twenty years prior to settling into a more abstract style. He continues to teach at Carleton College.

Madison Duran ‘20
March 2019

Sources:

“Fred Hagstrom.” Carleton College, 11 Oct. 2018, www.apps.carleton.edu/profiles/fhagstro/.
Hagstrom, Fred. “Fred Hagstrom.” Propagation,
www.people.carleton.edu/~fhagstro/statement.html.
“Stanley William Hayter 1901-1988.” Tate, Tate,
www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/stanley-william-hayter-1257