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New York painter Ludwig Sander was renowned for his vividly-colored abstract paintings, consisting of geometric rectangular planes. A painter of the New York School, his work was meditative and tranquil, with a distinct European feel. 

Born in Staten Island, New York in 1906, he went to school in Manhattan. He became familiar with the current trends in European art from magazines his German father regularly subscribed to. He began painting in earnest after attending the Arts Student League in 1928 and was fortunate to study under the legendary painter and teacher Hans Hofmann in Munich, Germany.

After a period of army service during World War II, Ludwig Sander went back to art school. After 1959 he began exhibiting at notable galleries, including that of Leo Castelli in New York. He was a contemporary and good friend of the Abstract Expressionists Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell. Although he often worked on a grandiose scale, his limited editions and paintings always speak to us in a “cool, clear whisper”, according to art critic John Russell.

His work features in major collections around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1968 Sander received a Guggenheim fellowship. This was followed up in 1973 with a Purchase Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Ludwig Sander died two years later in July 1975.