Abstract Composition

Etching and aquatint on Arches
Signed and numbered EA in lower margin
Published by Pierre & Genevieve Argillet

Johnny Friedlaender was an artist best known for his pioneering use of aquatint etching. Artists throughout Europe sought out Friedlaender as an expert printmaker and artisan.

Born in Pless in the former German kingdom of Prussia, Friedlaender attended the Academy of Arts in Breslau, where he studied lithography and etching under Expressionist artist Otto Mueller.

In 1930, he moved to Dresden, where his work was included in group exhibitions at Galerie J. Sandel and, in 1936, he traveled to Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Austria, France, and Belgium.

Friedlaender spent most of his adult life in Paris, after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1937. Between 1938 and 1939, Friedlaender worked at the literary magazine Marianne. From 1939 to 1943, he was interned in a series of concentration camps, but was able to return to Paris after the war. In 1947, he became a member of the Salon de Mai, and, in 1950, became a French citizen.

Friedlaender worked for various journals and focused on etching as his primary medium. He quickly established a reputation as an innovator in color printmaking, and a school formed in Paris around his work. From his atelier, Friedlaender instructed younger artists including Arthur Luiz Piza, Brigitte Coudrain, René Carcan, and Graciela Rodo Boulanger.

In 1957, he received the Kamakura Prize at the Tokyo Biennial. In 1959, he was awarded a teaching post by UNESCO at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. He continued traveling internationally throughout the rest of his career, holding exhibitions in Bern, Milan, Paris, and New York.

In 1978, he had his first retrospective, at the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. He was then given a retrospective at the Bremen Art Museum in Germany and at the chancellery in Bonn. Friedlaender died in Paris at the age of 80.