Otto Freundlich, La Rosace II (Rose Window), 1941. Musées de Pontoise. Exhibition Museum Ludwig, , 2017.
In Chartres Cathedral, in whose north tower he took up residence for several weeks in 1914 to paint, Freundlich found a source of artistic inspiration. Above all, the young artist was captivated by the incomparably magnificent rose windows of the Gothic building, their radiant facets harmonising with one another and the perfect geometry of the tracery. For him, the windows, in their abstraction, symbolised a radical innovation that he wanted to advance with his own paintings – but which was also intended to go far beyond art.
His abstraction was a thorn in the side of the Nazis, who defamed it as ‘degenerate’ and ridiculed and destroyed Freundlich’s art. He achieved sad fame with his sculptural work ‘Großer Kopf’ (Big Head): in 1938, the Nazis symbolically placed it on the cover of their exhibition guide ‘Degenerate Art’. As an artist, he was completely marginalised, and because he had Jewish ancestors, Freundlich was also exposed to Nazi persecution and had to fear for his life: denounced while trying to flee, the Nazis deported him to the Sobibor extermination camp in 1943. Freundlich probably died on the way or shortly after arrival.
Entartete Kunst, Degenerate Art, exhibition guide. The sculpture on the cover is by Otto Freundlich.
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