Born in Vienna, where she studied graphic design and textile art at the State Art School. In 1916, she studied with Johannes Itten, joined the Bauhaus group, attended the Bauhaus Art Academy in Weimar and designed costumes and puppets for the theater. In 1923, she established a design studio in Berlin with Franz Singer, who specialized in designing fabrics, apartments, stores and furniture. She moved to Vienna in 1925 and opened Atelier Singer-Dicker 1926. In 1931, she opened a studio and gallery where she created a series of posters reflecting her communist views, and in February 1934, her work was destroyed and she was imprisoned. After serving a short prison sentence, she moved to Prague, where she resumed her political and artistic activities. She married Pavel Brandeis in 1936, and began teaching, incorporating Bauhaus theories. In 1939, the couple moved to Hronov, where Friedl designed fabrics for a textile factory and gave art classes at Jewish kindergartens. Friedl and Pavel were deported to the Terezin ghetto in December 1942. Prior to her deportation, she packed a variety of art materials intended for teaching children in the ghetto. Within a short time, she started teaching art in children's homes, in an attempt to alleviate their misery. Her approach later became an important milestone in the development of the field of art therapy, and the use of art as a therapeutic tool when working with children. 6 October 1944, she was deported on transport EO-167 to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.
The hundreds of paintings of children found in the ghetto after the war reflect the inner world of children torn from their homes, and depict their fears, memories and hopes. Most of the children shared Friedl's fate and were murdered during the Holocaust.
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