In 1930 Freddie's painting Liberté Égalité Fraternité as shown at the Artists' Autumn Exhibition in Copenhagen—the first surrealist work Presented in Denmark. Emulating Dali, he was inclined toward audacious gestures. In 1937 his exhibition Sex-Surreal, in Copenhagen, caused a scandal and was closed when the police seized several of the paintings, which were subsequently consigned to the Institute of Criminology. The confiscated paintings induced his World War's Fallen, now exhibited at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark. In 1940 Freddie met with great success, with a new exhibition and his ballet The Triumph of Love performed at Elsinore. During the war, he was forced to hide in Sweden to evade the Nazis, whom he'd attacked in his paintings. In 1948 he began to evolve toward lyrical abstraction, and made two movies, Final Refusal of a Request for a Kiss (1949) and Eaten Horizons (1950), while also creating several object-paintings. In 1973 Freddie was appointed professor at the School of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, which he did not attend in his youth, having been self-taught. His painting continued to transform, drawing on anecdote, in his Castelmadama series (1975-6).

Wilhelm Freddie

Born 1909 and died 1995 in Copenhagen. 

Self-Portrait, Oil on Canvas, 1938