Estate of Dan Friedman

Friedman was an internationally known artist, teacher, graphic designer, and furniture and fantasy object designer. During the 1970s and 1980s, he exhibited his innovative work at several New York galleries, notably Fun Gallery, Art et Industrie, and Red Studio. Later, Friedman continued producing “modern living” installations and “mental furniture” for other U.S. galleries and for Galerie Neotu in Paris and Arredaesse, Driade, Studio Alchimia, and Alessi in Milan. Much of this work, along with his graphic design, is in public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt, The Smithsonian Design Museum, both in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada; the Gewerbemuseum in Basel, Switzerland; and the Seibu Museum of Art in Tokyo. Friedman was also known as a 1970s pioneer of so-called New Wave graphic design and typography, and later for his book Radical Modernism (with Jeffrey Deitch, Steven Holt, and Alessandro Mendini), published by Yale University Press in 1994. He also contributed work to publications such as Artificial Nature (with Jeffrey Deitch, 1990) and Post Human (with Jeffrey Deitch, 1992). These were insightful discussions on the confluence of art, design, technology, and modern culture. After collaborating with artists, designers, and writers and engaging in a lucrative corporate graphic design career, Friedman devoted himself to teaching at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York, producing his own art and bridging the gap between art and design.