Gutfreund studied in Bechyně and Prague, and from 1909-1910 under Antoine Bourdelle in Paris. He was also interested in the work of Auguste Rodin, but was keen to pursue an artistic path of his own. It was Bohumil Kubišta in Paris who gave him the initial impetus to experiment with the new Cubist forms. In the years 1911-1912 he became a member of the Group of Fine Artists, at whose exhibitions he presented Cubist works, in which Expressionist depictions of states of mind were combined with symbolic content. His Anxiety, which dates from this period, is considered to be the first Cubist sculpture ever produced. The standing female figure is wrapped in a loosely falling, heavy and fragmented cloak that covers her entire body. Only the head and parts of the feet are visible. The mental state of the figure is evident from her facial expression, which is almost mask-like, and from the general posture of the body. It is reinforced by the arms being folded in front of the chest, emphasising her alienation from the outside world.
In the spring of 1914, Gutfreund travelled to Paris again to settle there permanently. He was personally acquainted with Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Guillaume Apollinaire, and the German-French art dealer and passionate promoter of Cubism, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler.
During the First World War, Gutfreund – an Austro-Hungarian citizen of Jewish descent – joined the French Foreign Legion, and after France banned citizens of enemy armies from serving there, he wanted to transfer to the French army. This, however, violated the discipline of the Foreign Legion, and Gutfreund was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. After his release in January 1919, he returned to Prague. Artistically, he now moved away from Cubism and began to work in a realistic style known as Social Civilism. In the young Czechoslovak Republic, Otto Gutfreund received a number of public commissions, including for official statues of the country’s first President, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.
With their materially compact stylistic vocabulary and their bold sculptural form of expression, Gutfreund's Cubist sculptures bear a remarkable similarity to Jaroslav Róna's works of art, as is illustrated by several of his Architectural Objects in this exhibition. Čestmír Suška, too, makes no secret of his fascination with Gutfreund's works. And Julius Reichel considers him to be an ingenious artist who did not lapse into kitsch. He wonders what Gutfreund might have gone on to achieve if he had not drowned while swimming in the Vltava near the Střelecký Island in Prague.
b. 1889 in Dvůr Králové, Kingdom of Bohemia
d. 1927 in Prague