Charles Biederman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Czech immigrants. As a student at the Art Institute of Chicago, he gravitated to modern French painting styles. A year in Paris from 1936 to 1937 exposed Biederman to new styles of abstract painting. In response, he created a series of works, including Untitled, Paris, February 1, 1937, featuring floating shapes rendered three-dimensionally on planes of bold color. Following his stay in Paris, Biederman ultimately turned to sculpture as a means to more fully explore three-dimensional abstraction.