Johnny Friedlaender was a pioneering printmaker at the center of the intersection of Surrealism and Expressionism. He rejected the gestural abandon of Expressionism, fully embracing a precise style of abstraction instead. He became known for musically oriented compositions of delicate forms and symbols in a harmonious palette. His work is instantly recognizable as uniquely his own. He is famous in part because of his leading role in aquatint, a printmaking technique that creates areas of tone rather than lines or dots.
Friedlaender attended the State Academy for Art and Crafts in what is now Wrocław, graduating in 1928. He traveled extensively in the pre-War years and then fled to Paris. He was captured and spent four years in Nazi concentration camps, after which he settled in France, where he would eventually become a citizen.
Friedlaender’s work can be found in museums across the globe.
