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, Freundlich was a great admirer of cubism. He was murdered at Majdanek concentration camp during the Holocaust.
To be honest, I didn’t know this man, until I stumbled upon this sculpture in Bielefeld, Germany. As I was drawing this sculpture that he made, it felt like I had a conversation with him. I learned to know him a bit, understand him a little better. He turned out to be a very gentle and friendly man.
He held hopes of a new, open and free utopian society based on the abolition of hierarchy and the removal of boundaries — “between the world and the cosmos, between human beings, between mine and yours, between all things that we see.”
He asked me (very politely I must say) to say hi to you. Otto Freundlich sends you his regards.
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