Ernest Freed

FOURTH GENERATION

c. 1955

With extraordinary passion, skill, innate creativity and determination, Ernest Bradfield Freed emerged as an innovative forerunner in the field of mid-20th century visual arts. Within these art forms, one finds striking examples of that era's experimentation and growth of modern art of the 1940s through early 1970s, both abstract and figurative. He has especially become known for the developments made in the techniques of intaglio engraving and etching, enlarged format and rich overlay of color in the field of two-dimensional printmaking. In an interview, the artist stated, "I tend to work a series of plates on themes such as ballet, the circus or Shakespearean themes, to realize symphony of movement and color, repeating and alternating the motif. There is little attention to pictorial representation, but concern in expressing the total emotional response in terms of human form. The artist and printmaker, has in hand a most trenchant medium, allowing for the expression of profound meanings and relationships in all human emotions."

Freed has left the art world an abundant and long-lasting legacy, and vision, expressing the spiritual struggles, the joys, and the sorrows and hopes of humanity. His artistic training included study at the University of Illinois, the Pennsylvania Academy of Art and the University of Iowa, with nationally known regional painter Grant Wood and internationally known printmaker Mauricio Lasansky, including a strong connection with the Chicago Society of Etchers and Atelier 17. Freed's career in education included, among others, positions at the University of Iowa and Bradley University in Illinois, and 20 years as professor of art at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California. Freed proved early in life to be an extraordinary painter, sculptor, educator and, above all, he followed his love for the techniques of printmaking, all with his own personal style. His lifelong creative problem-solving process with the elements of visual art has been lovingly shared with the world. His solo exhibitions were held at the Felix Landau Gallery in Los Angeles, Cranbrook Museum, Winnipeg Museum and in Illinois, Iowa, Southern California and North Carolina University. Ernest Freed passed away in Northridge, California in 1974.