Knaths was an early modernist with cubist idiom. He studied at Art Institute of Chicago from 1912 until 1916, and was influenced by Cézanne and Wassily Kandinsky. His early works are mainly comprised of still lifes and lanscapes. Later, Knaths began to investigate the corespondance between musical intervals and spatial proportions. He has painted murals for Works Progress Administration (WPA), taught and Lectured at various institutions including Phillips’s Art School, Bennington College, Vermont, Black Mountain College, North Carolina, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Knaths holds an honorary degree of a Doctor of Fine Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago.