Paul Friedlander (artist)

Paul Friedlander (born 1951) is a light artist who first trained as a physicist. Friedlander obtained a bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics at the University of Sussex and was tutored by Sir Anthony Leggett who later was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work on superfluidity. In 1976 he graduated with a B.A. in Fine Art at Exeter College of Art, UK. Friedlander worked as a lighting and stage designer for theatrical productions and avant-garde music before devoting himself to kinetic art at the age of 36. He lives and works in London, United Kingdom (UK).

Born in Manchester, UK, he moved to Cambridge at the age of three where his father F.G. Friedlander (1917-2001) was a lecturer and reader of mathematics at University of Cambridge and later made a fellow of the Royal Society. His parents were Elfriede and Paul Friedländer (). Friedlander's mother Yolande Friedlander was an abstract artist. His parents were non conformist and encouraged Paul to follow his own inclinations. As a child Friedlander was inspired by the space age and dreamed of building his own interstellar spaceships.

Paul Friedlander became fascinated by art involving the use of movement and light in the late 1960s, when he visited the Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Kinetics show at the Hayward Gallery. He was most inspired by the works of the cybernetic artists Nicholas Schöffer(1912) and Wen-Ying Tsai(1928). Since then he has been strongly driven to make kinetic works. In 1983 he made an important discovery of the chaotic properties of spinning string and invented chromastrobic light 'light that changes color faster than the human eye can see'.

These innovations became a major foundation for many of his later works. His first sculptures to use chromastrobic light were exhibited in the same year at London's ICA gallery.

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