Otto Freundlich (10 July 1878 – 9 March 1943) was a German painter and sculptor of Jewish origin. A part of the first generation of abstract painters in

Western art The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleol ...

, Freundlich was a great admirer of

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

Life

Freundlich was born in Stolp, Province of Pomerania,

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

. His mother was a first cousin of the writer Samuel Lublinski. Otto studied dentistry before deciding to become an artist. He went to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1908, living in

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

in Bateau Lavoir near to

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

and others. In 1914 he returned to Germany. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he became politically active as a member of the November Group. In 1919, he organized the first

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

- exhibition in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

with

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

and Johannes Theodor Baargeld. In 1925, he joined the Abstraction-Création group. After 1925, Freundlich lived and worked mainly in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. 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 Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

including his monumental sculpture ''

Der Neue Mensch ''Large Head (The New Man)'' (German: ''Großer Kopf (Der Neue Mensch)'') was a sculpture made by German artist Otto Freundlich in 1912 and thought to have been destroyed in around 1941. It is now considered to be one of the most important Modern ...

(The New Human)'' 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 The Neues Museum (English: ''New Museum'') is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. Built from 1843 to 1855 by order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles, it ...

. While in Paris, he became a member of the

Union des Artistes Allemands Libres The Union des Artistes Allemands Libres was a federation of exiled German artists living in Paris, France, after the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the establishment of the Third Reich after the Nazis seized power. It was founded in autumn 193 ...

.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 (7 November – 5 December 2010), p. 5. Retrieved 10 February 2012 He moved to France in 1924, and during the occupation moved with his wife to the Pyrenees. Freundlich was interned by the Vichy authorities but released, for a time, under the influence of

. In 1943 he was arrested and deported to Majdanek Concentration Camp, where he was murdered on the day he arrived.

Legacy

Although Otto Freundlich has been largely overlooked since being vilified by the Nazis, a documentar
''Das Geht Nur Langsam (It Takes Time)''
was released in 2012. The film traces his vision to build streets of sculptures running through Europe symbolizing his utopian ideas for a world society. In Stolp there is bust erected in memory of Otto Freundlich.

Gallery

File:Otto Freundlich Mein roter Himmel 1933.jpg, My red heaven (1932) File:Komposition (1932) by Otto Freundlich.jpg, Composition (1932) File:Otto Freundlich Sphärische Körper 1925 WVZ 234.jpg, Spherical bodies (1925) File:Entartete Kunst. Ausstellungsführer. Reichspropagandaleitung, Amtsleitung Kultur 1937. Heft. Degenerate art. Exhibition guide cover. "Der neue Mensch" by Otto Freundlich. df dat 0005888.jpg, Exhibition guide to the Degenerate Art Exhibition with his sculpture

on the cover File:Otto Freundlich - Die Mutter - BG-M 2047-80 - Berlinische Galerie.jpg, The Mother File:Otto Freundlich Komposition 1939 WVZ 197.jpg, Komposition (1939) File:Otto freundlich, composizione, 1911.jpg, Composition (1911)

References

External links

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

Das Geht Nur Langsam (It Takes Time)
Documentary Film. {{DEFAULTSORT:Freundlich, Otto 1878 births 1943 deaths Abstract painters People from Słupsk German Jews who died in the Holocaust 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters 20th-century German painters Jewish painters Modern painters People who died in Majdanek concentration camp People from the Province of Pomerania German civilians killed in World War II German people executed in Nazi concentration camps Executed people from Pomeranian Voivodeship 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists German male sculptors 19th-century sculptors People of Montmartre

Life

Legacy

Gallery

See also

References

External links