Franz Geritz

Franz Geritz was a painter, printmaker and illustrator, born in Budapest, Hungary. His family immigrated to the United States in 1909, eventually settling in California. He studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland under the likes of Xavier Martinez, Perham Nahl and Frank Van Sloun, graduating in 1921. He worked as a freelance illustrator for various Californian newspapers during the early 1920s and began teaching block printing at the University of California Extension, Los Angeles in 1922. He would hold his position there for a decade.

Geritz's block prints were widely exhibited in southern California, including at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1922, 1923, 1926) and the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery. He also had exhibitions around the country, such as at the Brooklyn Museum (1930) and Smithsonian Institute (1935).

He was a member of the California Society of Etchers, the California Printmakers, and the Oakland Art Association, and produced a few prints through the Public Works Administration during the Great Depression.