His surviving early work includes charcoal drawings of scenes of life which reflect the hardship and poverty of the period after the First World War.
Hugo Heller, who had died the previous year, had been a bookseller and a central figure in Viennese cultural life, who was particularly noted for promoting the writings of Sigmund Freud.
He set up a studio in Montmartre and through his acquaintance with the Belgian writer and avant garde painter, Ferdinand Berckelaers Michael Seuphor he was introduced to the Paris art scene.
Later that year Fried exhibited his first painting at the Salon d'Automne amongst the foreign grouping beaux-arts de la France d'outre-mer which at that time included Picasso and Chagall.
[5] In 1927 he contributed to the exhibition Das Werden eines Kunstwerkes at the Osterreichisches Museum fur Kunst und Industrie.
Fried stayed behind to finish illustrations for a book, and several months later, when he applied for his visa, it was not granted because the quota for Hungarian emigrants was filled.
Fried became a very active member of the artists community in Greenwich village, many of whom were emigres from central Europe, and in particular he re-established his friendship with Kertész, who was now gaining widespread recognition as a photographer.
[10] Meanwhile, in 1947 Fried married Maria Englehardt, who was actively committed to social work, and they were to establish an art school within the Hudson Guild, a charitable organisation in West 25 Street.
Fried specialized in teaching etching and the techniques of woodcuts and amongst his students was the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, with whom he had escaped from Paris to Toulouse in 1940.
This was a commune of artists and Fried continued teaching and was active in organizing exhibitions connected with the Westbeth Graphics Workshops.
He was also particularly successful as a portrait painter, while at the same producing etchings, linocuts and woodcuts, which in some cases were used as book illustrations.These included the work of the poet Michael Blumenthal, whose Sympathetic Magic, published in 1980 was illustrated by Fried.
[11] In 1972 the Frieds moved to the Old Parsonage in Otis in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where they spent the summer months, although he continued to work and live in Greenwich village where he died of a heart attack in July 1980.
[13] In Austria In 2013 the Zinkenbacher Malerkolonie Museum in St Gilgen held an exhibition of the paintings collected by Fritz Grossmann which were associated with the Marlerkolonie and artists of the Hagenbund.