Otto Freundlichartist • painterSlupsk (Polen) 1878-1943 Maidanek (Polen)

Otto Freundlich, German painter of Polish origin, was part of the artistic avant-garde in Germany and Paris in the early decades of the 20th century. Initially he studied art history in Munich and Florence, but at the age of 27 he started painting. He moved to Paris in 1909, where he soon became part of the group of early Cubists around Braque, Gris and Picasso. His first sculptures also date from this period. He was then one of the first artists to paint completely abstractly. In the 1930s, his paintings were considered 'entarte' by the Nazis and from 1937 onwards they were widely destroyed. Museums: a.o. Musee Tavet-Delacour, Pontoise, France.