b'TheArtofFredaKhlerTheGermanartistFredaKhlerproducedabodyofcompellingvisionarypaintingsanddrawings.Only a fraction appear to have survived. She signed her works, Sieg-bert, which in old Germanmeansbrightvictory;asignoftherevelatorymessagesinherartand,perhaps,thenameofherspiritguide.Itistemptingtoreadheruntitledportraitdrawingofawoman(fig.1)aseitheraself-portraitoravisionarylikenessofSieg-bert.Thetitleswrittenonthefrontofmanyoftheworks,andthe hand-written explanatory text on the verso of some of them, certainly strongly suggests amediumistic source. Botanical forms dominate (figs.2-5). They metamorphose and reveal cosmicmessages. They are similar in many ways to much work from 20th Century Central Europeanspiritualistcircles,byartistslikeAnnaHckel,AnnaZemnkovandCecilieMarkov.ItisclearfromherworkthatKhleralsosharedacharacteristicearly-twentiethcenturyfascinationforthosescientificdiscoveriesandtechnologicaladvancesthatrevealedrealityasmutableandinconstantmotion,fromsplittingtheatomandX-rays,toelectricstreetlightsandmovingpictures.ShesharedthisincommonwithotherartistsbasedinGermanywhowerealsointerestedincosmologicalthemes, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. In one image, for example, titled DisturbedCosmicCalm(fig.6),shewroteontheverso:Nocommentrequired.UnlawfulApplicationofatomicresearchagainstthelawsofnaturewillshakethecosmostogreatmisery.WeknowverylittleaboutFredaKhlerbeyondwhatiscontainedinashort,typedlabelpinnedtothebackofoneofherworks.ShewasbornFredaSpoklinLeipzigin1912,beganpaintingaround1932,andworkedasascenepainterinBerlin.In1945shewasbombedoutofherBerlinhome.After2'