Otto Gutfreund
1889-1927
He was trained at the Prague School of Decorative Arts and worked with Bourdelle in Paris, 1909-10. He was attracted by Cubism and was among the first to apply the principles of Cubism to sculpture. The critic Douglas Cooper has claimed that Gutfreund was the first artist to produce a Cubist sculpture. On his return to Prague in 1911 he formed one of a small group of avant-garde artists attempting a fusion of Cubism and Expressionism. In 1914 he went back to Paris where he met Picasso, Gris and Apollinaire amongst others. He spent the war years serving in the French Foreign Legion and saw action at the Somme. After his return to Prague in 1919 he developed a more popular and naturalistic style based upon folk art. Tragically, on 2 June, 1927 Gutfreund, at the height of his artistic powers, drowned in the river Vltava in Prague. A bust from his Cubist peiod (1912-13) is in the Tate Gallery, London.
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