Otto Freundlich
| Otto Freundlich | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the exhibition program: Degenerate Art 1937 |
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| Born | July 10, 1878 Stolp, Germany |
| Died | March 9, 1943 Majdanek, Poland |
| Nationality | German |
| Field | Painting and sculpture |
Otto Freundlich (July 10, 1878 – March 9, 1943) was a German painter and sculptor of Jewish origin and one of the first generation of abstract artists.
Life [edit]
Freundlich was born in Stolp, Province of Pomerania, Prussia, and studied dentistry before deciding to become an artist. He went to Paris in 1908, living in Montmartre in Bateau Lavoir near to Pablo Picasso, Braque and others. In 1914 he returned to Germany. After World War I, he became politically active as a member November Group. In 1919, he organized the first Dada - exhibition in Cologne with Max Ernst and Johannes Theodor Baargeld. In 1925, he joined the Abstraction-Création group.
After 1925, Freundlich lived and worked mainly in France. In Germany, his work was condemned by the Nazis as degenerate and removed from public display. Some works were seized and displayed at the infamous Nazi exhibition of degenerate art including his monumental sculpture Der Neue Mensch (The New Man) which was photographed unsympathetically and used as the cover illustration of the exhibition catalogue. Der Neue Mensch was never recovered and is assumed to have been destroyed. One of his sculptures was recovered in an excavation in Berlin and put on display at the Neues Museum.[1][2][3]
While in Paris, he became a member of the Union des Artistes Allemandes Libres.[4]
With outbreak of World War II, Freundlich was interned by the French authorities but released, for a time, under the influence of Pablo Picasso. In 1943 he was arrested and deported to Majdanek Concentration Camp, where he was murdered on the day he arrived.
References [edit]
- ^ Associated Press article 8 November 2010
- ^ "Buried in a Bombed-Out Cellar: Nazi Degenerate Art Rediscovered in Berlin" Der Spiegel (August 11, 2010)
- ^ "Photo Gallery: Sensational Find in a Bombed-Out Cellar" Der Spiegel (August 11, 2010)
- ^ Siegfried Gnichwitz, "Heinz Kiwitz: gekämpft · vertrieben · verschollen" (PDF) Stiftung Brennender Dornbusch. Folder from an exhibition in honor of the 100th anniversary of Kiwitz' birth. Liebfrauenkirche, Duisburg (November 7 – December 5, 2010), p. 5. Retrieved February 10, 2012 (German)
External links [edit]
- A Forcing of Barriers - A staged encounter between Freundlich and Nazi sculptor, Arno Breker, conceived by Per-Oskar Leu for the online magazine, Triple Canopy.
- Biographic Details
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