Lyonel Feininger

Infobox Artist
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name = Lyonel Feininger


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caption = Feininger's painting 'Gaberndorf II', 1924
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birthdate = birth date |1871|7|17|
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deathdate = death date and age |1956|1|13|1871|7|17|
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nationality = American
field = Painting, Cartoonist
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Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17 1871 – January 13 1956); was a German-American painter and caricaturist.

Life and work

Lyonel Feininger was born to parents of German American descent and grew up in New York City. He moved to Berlin in 1887 to study at the Königliche Akademie Berlin under Ernst Hancke, art schools in Berlin with Karl Schlabitz, and in Paris with sculptor Filippo Colarossi. He started working as a caricaturist for several magazines including "Harper's Round Table", "Harper's Young People", "Humoristische Blätter", "Lustige Blätter", "Das Narrenschiff", "Berliner Tageblatt" and "Ulk".

Feininger married Clara Fürst, daughter of the painter Gustav Fürst, and they had two daughters. He also had several children with Julia Berg whom he later married.

The artist is represented with drawings at the exhibitions of the annual Berlin Secession in the years 1901 through 1903.

Feininger only started working as an artist at the age of 36, after having worked as a commercial caricaturist for twenty years for various newspapers and magazines in both the USA and Germany; he was a member of the "Berliner Sezession" in 1909, was associated with expressionist group Die Brücke, the Novembergruppe, Gruppe 1919, the Blaue Reiter circle and The Blue Four. Famously, he designed the cover for the Bauhaus 1919 manifesto - an expressionist woodblock 'cathedral'. He also taught at the Bauhaus for several years.

When the NSDAP came to power in 1933, the situation became unbearable for Feininger and his wife, who was partly Jewish. They moved to America after his work was exhibited in the 'degenerate art' ("Entartete Kunst") in 1936, but before the 1937 exhibition in Munich.

Feininger was one of the very few fine artists also to draw comic strips as a cartoonist. His short-lived strips, "The Kin-der-Kids" and "Wee Willie Winkie's World" were noted for their fey humor and graphic experimentation.

Feininger also had intermittent activity as a pianist and composer, with several piano compositions and fugues for organ extant.

His son, Andreas Feininger, became famous as a photographer of New York City.

Selected works

* 1907, "Der weiße Mann", (Collection Museo Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid)
* 1910, "Straße im Dämmern", (Sprengel Museum, Hannover)
* 1913, "Gelmeroda I", (Private collection, New York)
* 1913, "Leuchtbake", (Museum Folkwang, Essen)
* 1918, "Teltow II", (Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin)
* 1925, "Barfüßerkirche in Erfurt I", (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart)
* 1929, "Halle, Am Trödel", (Bauhaus-Archive, Berlin)
* 1931, "Die Türme über der Stadt (Halle)", (Museum Ludwig, Köln)
* 1936, "Gelmeroda XIII", (Metropolitan Museum of Art, George A. Hearn)

ee also

* Cubism
* Expressionism

References

* [http://www.artnet.com/Artists/ArtistHomePage.aspx?artist_id=674148&page_tab=Bio_and_links Feininger's biography at artnet]

External links

* [http://cartoons.osu.edu/FEININGER/index.html Lyonel Feininger Digital Album] The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/feiningr.htm Toonopedia: Lyonel Feininger]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8241261 Lyonel Feininger's Photo & Gravesite]
* [http://www.ludorff.com/ap/feininger/feiningere.html Available Works and Biography] Galerie Ludorff, Duesseldorf, Germany
* [http://br.geocities.com/artxxcentury/lyonel_feininger.htm Lyonel Feininger Virtual Gallery]
* [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/findingaids/index.cfm/fuseaction/Collections.ViewCollection/CollectionID/9000 Lyonel Feininger papers at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art]