ArtistDanishb.1909–d.1995
Wilhelm Freddie
2 active items
Born Christian Frederik Wilhelm Carlsen on 7 February 1909 in Copenhagen, he took the name Wilhelm Freddie and by 1930 had staged what is generally considered the introduction of Surrealism to Denmark, with the painting "Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood." He had done brief stints at the Technical School in Copenhagen (sculpture, 1929-1930) and at the Graphic School under Aksel Jørgensen, but was largely self-directed in forming his practice.
Throughout the 1930s Freddie moved between an abstract register and a hyper-realistic, Dali-inflected imagery of distorted bodies, charged objects and provocative arrangements. Politics and eroticism became inseparable in his work. His 1936 paintings "Meditation on Anti-Nazi Love" and "Phenomene psychophotographique" placed sexual imagery directly in confrontation with the rising fascist order: in "Meditation on Anti-Nazi Love" a naked, contorted couple embraces in the foreground while a Hitler-like figure looms in the background. In 1937 his Copenhagen exhibition "Sex-Surreal: Take the Fork out of the Butterfly's Eye" was closed by police, who confiscated the works and arrested Freddie on obscenity charges. He spent ten days in jail; the confiscated paintings were not returned until 1963.
His presence within international Surrealism was established early. He participated in the 1935 International Cubist-Surrealist exhibition at Den Frie in Copenhagen alongside Magritte, Man Ray, Arp, Miro, Dali and Tanguy; at the 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition; at MoMA's landmark 1936 survey "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism"; and at the Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme in Paris in 1938.
When Germany occupied Denmark, the hostility toward Freddie intensified to the point of direct threats. In 1944 he fled to Sweden with his wife and son, living in Stockholm until 1950. The Swedish exile was not artistically dormant: his work "Sex-paralysappeal" entered the collection of Moderna Museet, Stockholm. He also made two short experimental films during this period: "The Definite Rejection of a Request for a Kiss" (1949) and "Eaten Horizons" (1950), which place him among the handful of Surrealist filmmaker-painters.
Back in Denmark, Freddie's standing was gradually rehabilitated. In 1973 he was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi). In 1970 he received the Thorvaldsen Medal, the Royal Danish Academy's highest distinction in the visual arts. He continued to work across painting, sculpture and printmaking until late in life, dying on 26 October 1995 at age 86.
On the Nordic auction market Freddie's work circulates primarily through Bruun Rasmussen (Lyngby and Aarhus) and, in Sweden, through houses including Crafoord Auktioner in Lund - reflecting the Swedish dimension of his biography. Our database records 20 lots across paintings, prints and sculpture. Top results include a 1992 painting "Modellen" at 36,000 DKK and a signed 1950 bronze sculpture "Head on the Block" at 24,000 DKK. Lithographs signed and numbered from his later print editions trade in the 1,300-2,600 SEK range.