Horizontal oriented landscape by Martin Friedman (HU/US, 1896-1981), oil/canvas, signed, circa 1960s-80s, unframed - 20" x 10"
 
Born in Hungary, Friedman emigrated to the US at the age of 9, settling with his family in Yonkers, NY. When he was 16 he enrolled in night classes the New York Academy of Art, despite working 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, at a local factory. He eventually quit his factory job to start work in commerical art. Initially painting landscapes outside, Friedman turned to painting indoors, describing his decision, “Once I stopped painting outdoors that was it, because I realized (painting indoors) was for me. Within the space of my four walls I could visualize and be in a world of my own, a wonderfully contained world that I cherish today.” His painting style was also inspired by music, espeically classical music. He recounted hearing Brahm’s Third Symphony and letting the composition of his work reflect the feeling and images the music communicated to him. Using pure pigment, Friedman would layer pigment and scrape away layers, in an attempt to avoid craquelure overtime and allow for multiple colors to penetrate the surface. He described his own work of having an “inner glow,” even those with dark color schemes seeming to have a lightness within. Starting with landscapes in the 1940s, Friedman viewed his work as transitioning between “dramatic” to “lyrical.” Supposedly Friedman hated painting figures, and only painted three nudes in his lifetime, perhaps this nude painting being one. His work has been exhbiited at MoMA, Carnegie, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, American Artists Congress, the World’s Fair in New York, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, among others. He was a member of Woodstock Art Association, the Federation of Modern Painters & Sculptors, and Audubon Artists.