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In the 1981 catalogue for the retrospective exhibition of his work at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum William Freed'summarized his artistic ambitions by saying: "I want to paint the invisible as well as the visible, to give each equal importance. I do not conform, or repeat myself. I believe that man's innermost character and feeling is conveyed to canvas from his experience with nature. From the contradiction and paradox of man's inner life comes the aesthetic truth that is finally realized pictorially on a two-dimensional picture plane."

In the late 1920s William Freed'studied at the Art Students League. This was followed in the 1930s by his employment with the Works Progress Administration where he assisted both Louis Schanker and George McNeil in the mural division. In 1937 he enrolled, along with his future bride, Lillian Orlowsky, in the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Art in New York. Together the two began a life-long friendship and association with Hans Hofmann. Freed and Orlowsky went on to found one of the early cooperative galleries in Manhattan named the James Gallery, and both became important and influential members of the art colony in Provincetown Massachusetts where they summered for more than forty years.

Freed's body of work can loosely be categorized within two basic genres: Still Life and Abstractions. While it is fair to say that all of Freed's work is nature-based, in the still life paintings the source material is easily visible, while in the Abstractions the still life that was his most common source is not readily apparent. The paintings selected for this exhibition were chosen to give a retrospective overview of Freed's Abstractions. The work selected will include paintings from as early as 1958 and will range as late as 1980, and will be composed of works in a variety of medium, including, oil, collage and tempera. The selections were made in order to demonstrate the development of Freed s mature style at it's most abstract. Remarkably, Freed's work regardless of the decade, is modern, fresh, and original.

Freed's work has been widely exhibited and collected since 1928 when he showed his work with the Society of Independent Artists. Today, Freed's work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Rose Museum of Art at Brandeis University, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Cape Cod Museum of Art, and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum among numerous others.

ACME Fine Art's exhibition of William Freed Abstractions will open with a reception from six to eight in the evening on Thursday 12 October 2006, and will be open to the public during regular gallery hours until Saturday 11 November 2006. The gallery is located at 38 Newbury Street gallery in Boston's Back Bay.

Please contact the gallery at 617.585.9551, or via e-mail at info@acmefineart.com for further information.