15 Inch Gun Turret, HMS Repulse,
August 1941. 1942
 

Biography

Painter, printmaker, draughtsman, born in east London to a poor Jewish family recently arrived from Russia. He was bedridden for several years as a child and largely taught himself basic education, music and to draw. By 1916 he was able to earn his living as a draughtsman to a monumental mason.

He spent five years studying part-time at St. Martin's School of Art. The personal influence of William Rothenstein enabled him to study full-time at the Royal College of Art, 1922-25. After a couple of years working freelance he began to exhibit at the NEAC and became a pioneer in reviving colour lithography. He periodically taught at the Ruskin School of Art and the Royal College of Art and was an official war artist in the Second World War.

By the time of his death Freedman had established an enviable reputation as illustrator and designer of posters, stamps, books and book-jackets believing in 'only good and bad art'. His first exhibition was at the Literary Bookshop, Bloomsbury in 1929; a memorial exhibition was held by the Arts Council in 1958. The Freedman archive is now held at Manchester Metropolitan University. The Tate Gallery holds his work.