Otto Freundlich — Lichtkreise (Kosmischer Regenbogen) (1922) | Circles of Light — Cosmic Rainbow Abstract Print

Nested arches of blue, yellow, rust, green and brown rise around a dark oval at the centre, with a glow of red, orange and yellow beneath and a wide arc of red, yellow, white and pale blue curving across the top — a rainbow seen from inside the atmosphere. Freundlich made 'Circles of Light (Cosmic Rainbow)' in pastel in 1922, when his interest in the spiritual and cosmic dimension of colour was at its height. It is the most atmospheric of his abstractions.

Otto Freundlich (1878–1943) was one of the first European painters to commit fully to abstraction. Born in Pomerania, he settled in Paris in 1908 among the artists of the Bateau-Lavoir, worked on the restoration of the stained glass at Chartres Cathedral, and went on to build his mature paintings from interlocking fields of colour laid down like mosaic tesserae, later co-founding the Abstraction-Création group. In 1937 the Nazi regime singled out his work as 'degenerate', and he did not survive the war. His paintings were gathered by his companion Jeanne Kosnick-Kloss and donated to the Musée de Pontoise, and they have been steadily rediscovered ever since as a cornerstone of early abstraction.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.