Describing himself as the "best unknown artist in America" (Time 26 Jan 1970), Charles Biederman was a constructivist painter and sculptor of structural reliefs, the latter a medium he is credited with inventing. It has been said that he enjoyed a greater reputation in England and Canada than at home.

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and as a teenager went to work as an apprentice in a commercial art studio where he stayed four years. From 1926 to 1929, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and remained in Chicago until 1934 when he moved to New York. In 1936, he traveled to Europe where he met many modernists including Piet Mondrian and Fernand Leger, both whom had a great influence on his art.

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