COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0000532
image_record_id
aahi0000532
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Composition
Image Title:
full view
Work Dates (display):
1936
Work Dates type:
creation
Work Creator (display):
Otto Freundlich (German, 1878-1943)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
(b Stolp [now Stupsk, Poland], 10 July 1878; d Maidanek concentration camp, nr Lublin, 9 March 1943). German painter, sculptor, stained-glass designer and writer. He studied art history (19034) in Berlin and Munich. After a visit to Florence (19056), he began to experiment with sculpture and studied with Lothar von Kunowski (b 1866) in Berlin (19078). He spent 19089 in Paris, where he met Picasso, Braque and Gris. Between 1910 and 1914 he divided his time between Paris, Berlin and Cologne: from 1910 he participated in the exhibitions of the Berlin Secession and from 1913 had contacts with the Sturm-Galerie in Berlin. His expressive early works included both sculptures and flat, geometric paintings (e.g. Composition with Figure, 1911; Pontoise, Mus. Pontoise). Having spent World War I in Cologne, from 1918 to 1924 he lived in Berlin, where he was one of the founder-members of the Novembergruppe in 1918, and contributed to the radical newspaper Die Aktion: Zeitschrift für Freiheitliche Politik und Literatur Aktion. In 1920 Walter Gropius tried to make him a teacher with the Bauhaus, but this was opposed by the faculty. In 1924 he moved to Paris but maintained his German contacts, writing in 1929 as a correspondent for the newspapers published by the artists' group Die Progressiven in Cologne. In 1931 he was one of the first members of the group AbstractionCréation in Paris, where he then opened his own private academy. From the early 1920s Freundlich developed a Constructivist style characterized by interlocking cellular forms, which was more elastic, rhythmic and colourful than his previous painting. Such compositions as My Sky is Red (1933; Paris, Pompidou) are based on an orthogonal framework, in which the right angles are twisted irregularly. The paintings contain elaborate systems of colour modulations, which create complementary harmonies and degrees of spatial illusionism. The application of impastoed paints also creates a three-dimensional effect. Freundlich's paintings also expressed his political views: his belief in 'cosmic Communism', for example, is associated with the colours in My Sky is Red. Freundlich's work with stained glass from the early 1920s is closely linked with his abstract paintings, and indeed it had the greatest influence on the development of his style. In 1924 Freundlich received permission to set up as a stained-glass painter in France, although he did not subsequently receive any commissions. His admiration for the stained glass in Chartres Cathedral inspired him to produce numerous small abstract gouaches and pastels, which were essentially designs for imaginary stained glass. In the few surviving examples of his glass, the pieces, joined by narrow pieces of lead, are mainly irregular, usually within a square frame: like the paintings, they form complicated colour systems. In Freundlich's sculpture the constituent parts of the work are transformed by their interrelationship, as in Ascension (bronze, 1.93×1.04×1.03 m, 1929; e.g. Paris, Pompidou). The importance given to the organization of the individual forms is linked with Freundlich's collectivist social theories, while his spiritual aspirations are expressed in the work's title. Ascension also shows affinities with the biomorphism of Picasso's sculptures of the early 1930s, and with Constructivist concepts of architectural sculpture. Freundlich was led towards working on monumental sculpture in towns and the countryside by what he saw as the closeness of such forms to architecture and 'collective' values. He designed an unexecuted Lighthouse of the Seven Arts (plaster model, c. 1936; Pontoise, Mus. Pontoise), which was meant to stand at the intersection of two vast streets with sculptures, running through Europe and finishing in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. The concept of the monumental 'sculpture architecturale' was intended to inspire community building of centres of communication: Freundlich proposed such landmarks as concrete towers, 30 m high, menhirs and illuminated towers for aeroplanes in Skulpturenhügel (1936, published Paris, 1959). Although his Utopian ideals were unrealized, Freundlich achieved some success as one of the abstract painters who contributed to the Parisian salon Réalités Nouvelles (founded 1939), alongside Kandinsky, Mondrian, Robert and Sonia Delaunay and Frantisk Kupka. In Germany, however, his work was condemned by the Nazis: indeed the publication accompanying the exhibition of Entartete kunst in Munich in 1937 had on its cover an illustration of Freundlich's plaster sculpture the New Person (1912; destr.). During World War II Freundlich fell a victim of the Holocaust, even though he fled to the Pyrenees after a group of artists, including Picasso, managed to arrange his release from internment. He was arrested and deported in February 1940 and later died in a concentration camp. (Grove Art Online accessed 2007-10-17)
Work Style Period:
Modernist
work_styleperiod
Modernist
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
20th century
work_styleperiod
20th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
Abstract Expressionist
work_styleperiod
Abstract Expressionist
Work Style Period
false
Work Worktype:
oil paintings
work_type
oil paintings
Work Worktype
false
Work Worktype:
paintings (visual works)
work_type
paintings (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
paintings
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
paintings
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
oil on canvas
Work Measurements (display):
161 cm (H) x 130 cm (W)
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Offentliche Kunstsammlung Basel
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
repository
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid:
76.36
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid type:
accession
Work Location (Geographic) name:
Basel, Switzerland
Image Rights (display):
© Ronald Wiedenhoeft. Licensed for educational use via Scholars Resource: Saskia, Ltd.
Image Rights license agreement:
SASKIA, LTD.: WHO CAN USE THIS SOFTWARE: (a) Licensee, including faculty, staff and currently enrolled students may use the Licensed Software to display and or print the corresponding graphic images without limitation for teaching and research purposes at the defined Sites, or at remote locations having electronic access to your Site(s). (b) This license include permission to use the Licensed Software on a multi-user network at the defined Site, and to permit remote access to a computer/server located at your Site. Simultaneous display in multiple locations at or connected to the Site is also permitted. (c) Licensee agrees to employ reasonable security measures designed to limit access to your faculty, staff and currently enrolled students. PROHIBITED USES AND LIMITATIONS: (a) Saskia hereby reserves all rights not expressly granted herein. (b) the License Software may not be used for preparaiton of any publication, scholarly or otherwise; or for any purpose other than teaching or research. Publication of an image from the Licensed Software requires a separate license from Saskia. (c) Licensee agrees not to resell, lease, transfer, sub-license or otherwise distribute a copy of the Licensed Software, or any image taken from the Licensed Software, in whole or in part. (d) Licensee also agrees not to modify, corrupt or alter any digital image graphic content or "digital watermark" or the like in the software provided by Saskia under this Agreement. (e) Licensee agrees not to remove, alter, cover or distort Saskia's copyright notice, trademark, or other proprietary rights notice placed by Saskia in the Licensed Software itself, or in the associated packaging, media or documentation. (f) And Licensee agrees to notify users of the Licensed Software, in writing or by sign-on screen display, of their obligations under this Agreement and solicit their cooperation and compliance with such obligations.
Work Rights (display):
© Otto Freundlich
Terms of Agreement and Conditions of Use:
YOU AGREE: Luna Imaging's Insight Software and the digital image collection associated with it (the Software) are being provided by the University of Colorado under the following license. By obtaining, using, and/or copying this work, you (the Licensee) agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions. 1. The Software contains the University of Colorado's Department of Art and Art History's implementation of a digital image collection; 2. Any images obtained through use of the Software will be used only for non-profit, educational purposes; 3. The use of images obtained through the software will only be used while the Licensee is either: a) an employee of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver, or b) an enrolled student at the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver; 4. When the Licensee is no longer an employee or student of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or Community College of Denver, either by an action of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or the Community College of Denver or due to actions of the Licensee, the licensee will cease to use any images exported from the Department of Art and Art History's digital image collection; 5. The Licensee agrees to indemnify the University for claims and liability arising out of the use of the Software or for any violations of this license; 6. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SUPPLIES THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Center
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see . For specific questions, suggestions, or corrections about the descriptive data for images, contact aahvrc@colorado.edu. Please include the Image Record ID ('aahi' followed by a 7-digit number) for each image in question.