Artwork Page for Composition

Details / Information for Composition

Composition

1924

Otto Freundlich

(German, 1878–1943)
Culture
Germany, 20th century
Medium
pastel
Support
Paper
Measurements
Overall: 74.6 x 53.8 cm (29 3/8 x 21 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Lockwood Thompson 1992.277
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

After studying art in Germany and Italy, Freundlich visited Paris for the first time in 1908, and worked alongside avant-garde writers and artists such as Apollinaire, Braque, and Picasso in the bohemian district of Montmartre. Freundlich painted his first purely abstract works in 1911 and henceforth became committed to pioneering abstraction. His work was included in groundbreaking exhibitions before and after World War I in Berlin, Munich, and Paris. Some of his most lyrically intense pastels—such as Composition—were made in 1924 following a trip to Paris when he participated in the Salon des Indépendants.
Pastel on vertically oriented paper depicts a mosaic of interlocking geometric shapes and sweeping curves. Near the top, vertical bands of gray, peach, and blue sit above a horizontal bar. Centrally, a circular orange form rests atop a grid of colorful polygons. Broad arcs in shades of peach, red, and gray sweep from the left toward the bottom right. The initials O.F. are inscribed in the dark lower-left corner.

Composition

1924

Otto Freundlich

(German, 1878–1943)
Germany, 20th century

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