Johnny Friedlaender (1912-1992) German/French, Abstract Lithograph. Numbered 81/99 lower left. Signed in pencil lower right.
Abstract art with various geometric and abstract shapes.
Condition: Cracked glass in lower right corner.
Overall Size: 36 1/4 x 28 1/4 in.
Sight Size: 32 x 23 in.
Gotthard “Johnny” Friedlaender was born on December 26th, 1912, in Pless (Pszczyna), Prussian Silesia, the son of a pharmacist. He graduated from the Breslau (Wrocław) high school in 1922 and then attended the Academy of Arts (Akademie der Bildenden Kunste) in Breslau, where he studied under Otto Mueller. He graduated from the Academy as a master student in 1928. In 1930 he moved to Dresden where he held exhibitions at the J. Sandel Gallery and at the Dresden Art Museum. He was in Berlin for part of 1933 and then journeyed to Paris. Upon his return he was sent to a Nazi concentration camp on suspicion of subversive activities but was released in 1935. He fled to Czechoslovakia and settled in Ostrava, where he held the first one-man show of his etchings and attracted much attention for his vocal criticism of Hitler’s dictatorship. He spent much of 1936 touring through Switzerland, Austria, France, and Belgium, with his most successful exhibition held at The Hague, where he debuted his watercolors. Amidst the deteriorating political conditions in Europe, he moved to Paris with his wife in 1937, but after Germany invaded France he was again sent to a concentration camp and was eventually liberated in 1944. In 1945 he received a commission to illustrate four books by the brothers Jean and Jérôme Tharaud of the French Academy and worked for several newspapers including Cavalcade and Carrefour. He produced the work Rêves Cosmiques in 1947 and the same year became a member of the Salon de Mai, a position he held until 1969. In 1948, he began a friendship with the painter Nicolas de Staël and held his first exhibition in Copenhagen at Galerie Birch. After living in Paris for 13 years Friedlaender acquired French nationality by naturalization in 1952. He then began to exhibit in more international shows, including Italy, Japan, and Brazil. In 1957 he was the recipient of the Biennial Kakamura Prize in Tokyo, and two years later received a teaching post at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro through UNESCO. In 1968 Friedlaender travelled to Puerto Rico, New York City, and Washington, D.C. to hold his first American exhibitions. He purchased a home in Burgundy and began to divide his time more and more between there and the United States, which became one of his prime markets. From his atelier in Paris Friedlaender instructed younger artists like Arthur Luiz Piza, Brigitte Coudrain, Rene Carcan, Andreas Nottebohm, and Graciela Rodo Boulanger, creating a generation of experts in expressionist and post-modernist etching techniques, as well as lithography. In 1981 he was awarded the Lovis Corinth Prize in Regensburg, and on his 75th birthday Friedlaender was given a retrospective in the Bremen Art Museum. While preparing for another retrospective being held in Bonn he died in his studio in Paris from myocardial infarction on June 18th, 1992. His work, particularly his aquatint etching and his incorporation of dark, symbolist elements into his oils and watercolors, had a lasting impact on European artists in the post-War era, and his pieces are highly sought after by collectors around the world.
Cracked glass in lower right corner.
