Plan de Paris

Karasz's dramatic map of Paris is typical of her design: rich in colour and detail; references theatre and textiles; combining old cartographical tropes with ideas drawn from the work of Max Gill.

Her prize-winning textile designs for the “Designed in America” campaign, sponsored by Women’s Wear Daily, propelled her career forward in the early 1920s. She worked in a wide variety of media, producing designs for wallcoverings, textiles, carpets, lighting, ceramics, metalwork, toys, and furniture. She is perhaps most well known for her popular cover illustrations for the New Yorker magazine.

Karasz created furnishings and metalwork for the high-profile exhibitions of American Designers’ Gallery in 1928 and 1929; collaborated with notable designers such as Donald Deskey (American, 1894–1989), who frequently employed her textiles in his designs for interiors; and from the 1940s–1960s, produced wallpaper designs for the firm Katzenbach and Warren. “Her ambitious creative output, Karasz helped popularize a modern aesthetic in the United States” (Cooper Hewitt online).