Editing Lyonel Feininger

{{Short description|German-American painter}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Lyonel Feininger
| image         = Lyonel Feininger by Hugo Erfurth 1941.jpg
| image_size    = 200px
| caption       = Lyonel Feininger 1941
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{birth date |1871|7|17}}
| birth_place   = New York City, U.S.
| death_date    = {{death date and age |1956|1|13|1871|7|17}}
| death_place   = New York City, U.S.
| known_for     = Painting, [[Cartoonist]], Photography
| training      =
| movement      = [[Expressionism]], [[Cubism]], [[Blaue Reiter]], [[Die Brücke]], [[Berlin Secession]], [[Novembergruppe]]
| notable_works =
| patrons       =
| awards        =
| elected       = [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] (1955)
}}

'''Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|aɪ|n|ɪ|ŋ|ər}};<ref>{{Cite Dictionary.com|Feininger}}</ref> July 17, 1871{{spaced ndash}}January 13, 1956) was a [[German-American]] [[painters|painter]], and a leading exponent of [[Expressionism]].<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.museum-feininger.de/en/museum/lyonel-feininger/ |title=Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger |publisher=Museum Lyonel Feininger - Welterbestadt Quedlinburg |date= |access-date=25 April 2024}}</ref> He also worked as a [[caricature|caricaturist]] and [[comic strip]] artist. He was born and grew up in New York City. In 1887 he traveled to Europe and studied art in Hamburg, Berlin and Paris. He started his career as a cartoonist in 1894 and met with much success in this area. He also worked as a commercial caricaturist for 20 years. At the age of 36, he began to work as a fine artist. His work, characterized above all by prismatically broken, overlapping forms in translucent colors, with many references to architecture and the sea, made him one of the most important artists of classical modernism. Furthermore he produced a large body of photographic works and created several piano compositions and fugues for organ.

==Life and work==
[[File:Lyonel Feininger, 1914, Benz VI, oil on canvas, 100 x 125 cm (39.3 x 49.2 in).jpg|thumb|right|230px|Lyonel Feininger, 1914, ''Benz VI'', oil on canvas, 100 × 125 cm (39.3 × 49.2 in)]]
[[File:Lyonel_Feininger%27s_painting_%27Gaberndorf_II%27%2C_1924.jpg|thumb|Lyonel Feininger, 1924, ''Gaberndorf II'', oil on canvas mounted on board, (39 7/16 × 30 3/4 in)
Included in [[Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art]], [http://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/20694/gaberndorf-ii?ctx=7ddf4694-caff-44e6-960f-68871dd0512f&idx=0 46-10] ]]
Lyonel Feininger was born to German-American violinist and composer [[Karl Feininger]] and American singer Elizabeth Feininger.<ref name=aaabio>{{cite web|url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/alfred-vance-churchill-papers-regarding-lyonel-feininger-9000/more#biohist|title=Alfred Vance Churchill papers regarding Lyonel Feininger, 1888–1944|work=Archive of American Art Finding Aids|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|access-date=2011-07-29}}</ref> He was born and grew up in New York City.<ref>artnet: [http://www.artnet.com/artist/674148/lyonel-feininger.html "Lyonel Feininger (American/German, 1871–1956)"]: "Lyonel Feininger (Léonell Charles Feininger) is born in New York City on July 17th. He was the first child of the violinist Karl Feininger from Durlach in Baden (South West Germany) and the American singer Elizabeth Cecilia Feininger, born Lutz, who was also of German descent."</ref> In 1887 he traveled to Germany at the age of 16<ref name=coop>Cooper, Philip. ''Cubism''. London: Phaidon, 1995, p. 90. {{ISBN|0714832502}}</ref> to study music, but switched to study drawing at the [[University of Fine Arts of Hamburg|Hamburger Gewerbeschule]]. In 1888, he moved to Berlin and studied at the [[Academy_of_Arts,_Berlin|Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin]] under [[Ernst Hancke]]. He continued his studies at art schools in Berlin with [[Adolf Schlabitz]], and in Paris with sculptor [[Filippo Colarossi]]. He began working as a caricaturist.<ref>The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica: [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lyonel-Feininger "Lyonel Feininger. American artist."] Last Updated: 9 January 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2024.</ref> He worked for several magazines, including ''[[Harper's Round Table]]'', ''[[Harper's Young People]]'', ''Humoristische Blätter'', ''[[Lustige Blätter]]'', ''[[Das Narrenschiff (magazine)|Das Narrenschiff]]'', ''[[Berliner Tageblatt]]'' and ''[[Ulk]]''.

In 1900, he met [[Clara Fürst]], daughter of the painter Gustav Fürst. He married her in 1901, and they had two daughters. In 1905, he separated from his wife after meeting Julia Berg. He married Berg in 1908 and the couple had three sons.

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

Feininger's career as cartoonist began in 1894. He was working for several German, French and American magazines. In February 1906, when a quarter of Chicago's population was of German descent, [[James Keeley]], editor of The ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' traveled to Germany to procure the services of the most popular humor artists. He recruited Feininger to illustrate two comic strips "[[The Kin-der-Kids]]" and "[[Wee Willie Winkie's World]]" for the ''Chicago Tribune''.<ref name=aaabio/><ref name=osu>{{cite web|url=http://cartoons.osu.edu/digital_albums/lyonelfeininger/feininger.html|title=Lyonel Feininger|work=Cartoons|publisher=Ohio State University|access-date=2011-07-29}}</ref> The strips were noted for their [[wikt:fey|fey]] humor and graphic experimentation. He also worked as a commercial caricaturist for 20 years for various newspapers and magazines in the United States, Germany, and France. Later, [[Art Spiegelman]] wrote in ''[[The New York Times Book Review]],'' that Feininger's comics have "achieved a breathtaking formal grace unsurpassed in the history of the medium."<ref name=osu/>

Feininger started working as a fine artist at the age of 36. He was a member of the ''[[Berlin Secession|Berliner Sezession]]'' in 1909, and he was associated with [[German Expressionism|German expressionist]] groups: [[Die Brücke]], the [[Novembergruppe]], [[Gruppe 1919]], the [[Blaue Reiter]] circle and [[Die Blaue Vier]] (The Blue Four). His first solo exhibit was at [[Sturm Gallery]] in Berlin, 1917.<ref name="test" /> When [[Walter Gropius]] founded the [[Bauhaus]] in Germany in 1919, Feininger was his first faculty appointment, and became the master artist in charge of the printmaking workshop.<ref name=aaabio/><ref name="test">Muir, Laura and Nathan Timpano. Lyonel Feininger: Photographs 1928–1939.</ref>

[[File:Benz-Feininger-090626-008.JPG|thumb|Feininger Tour marker in Benz, [[Usedom]] Island, Germany]]
From 1909 until 1918, Feininger spent summer vacations on the island of [[Usedom]] to recover and to get new inspiration. Typical of works from this period were marine settings from the shores of the Baltic See (Ostsee). He continued to create paintings and drawings of [[Benz (Usedom)|Benz]] for the rest of his life, even after returning to live in the United States. A tour of the sites appearing in the works of Feininger follows a path with markers in the ground to guide visitors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.papileo.de/|title=Lyonel-Feininger-Tour auf Usedom|website=www.papileo.de}}</ref><ref name="mi 2014-12-16">{{cite web |last1=Backert |first1=Elke |title=The island of Usedom: Where the last German emperor was staying for summer |url=http://meine-inseln.net/die-insel-usedom-wo-der-letzte-deutsche-kaiser-zur-sommerfrische-weilte_723/?lang=en |website=My Islands |access-date=8 June 2022 |language=en |date=16 December 2014}}</ref><ref name="ndr 2020-07-30">{{cite web |title=Radtour: Auf Lyonel Feiningers Spuren über Usedom |trans-title=Bike tour: In the tracks of Lyonel Feininger via Usedom |url=https://www.ndr.de/ratgeber/reise/radtouren/Radtour-Auf-Lyonel-Feiningers-Spuren-ueber-Usedom,feiningerradweg100.html |website=[[Norddeutscher Rundfunk|NDR]] |access-date=8 June 2022 |language=de |date=30 July 2020}}</ref>

He designed the cover for the Bauhaus 1919 manifesto: an expressionist [[woodcut]] 'cathedral'. He taught at the Bauhaus for several years. Among the students who attended his workshops were [[Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack]] (German/Australian (1893–1965), [[Hans Friedrich Grohs]] (German 1892 – 1981), and [[Margarete Koehler-Bittkow]] (German/American, 1898–1964).

When the [[Nazi Party]] came to power in 1933, the situation became unbearable for Feininger and his wife. The Nazi Party declared his work to be "degenerate".<ref name=aaabio/> They moved to America after his work was exhibited in the '[[degenerate art]]' (''Entartete Kunst'') in 1936, but before the 1937 exhibition in [[Munich]]. He taught at [[Mills College]] before returning to New York.<ref name=aaabio /> He was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] in 1955.<ref name=AAAL>{{cite web|title=Deceased Members |url=http://www.artsandletters.org/academicians2_deceased.php |work=American Academy of Arts and Letters |access-date=July 30, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726004624/http://www.artsandletters.org/academicians2_deceased.php |archive-date=July 26, 2011 }}</ref>

In addition to drawing, painting, woodcutting, and printmaking, Feininger created art with painted toy figures being photographed in front of drawn backgrounds.<ref>{{cite book|pages=36–76|title=Lyonel Feininger: City at the Edge of the World|first=T. Lux|last=Feininger|publisher=Frederick A. Praeger|year=1965|lccn=65-25280}}</ref>

Feininger produced a large body of photographic works between 1928 – he was then already 58 years old – and the mid-1950s. He then lived and taught in Dessau, where his neighbor was the famous experimental photographer [[László Moholy-Nagy]], who encouraged him. He kept his photographic work within his circle of friends, and it was not shared with the public in his lifetime. He gave some prints away to his colleagues [[Walter Gropius]] and [[Alfred H. Barr Jr.]]<ref name="test" />

Feininger also had intermittent activity as a pianist and composer, with several piano compositions and fugues for organ extant. In tandem with the Whitney retrospective, the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein, at Carnegie Hall on 21 October 2011, performed three orchestral fugues written by Feininger. Barbara Haskell, curator of the Whitney exhibit, wrote that for his entire life, Feininger credited Bach with having been his "master in painting."<ref>{{cite web|date=October 21, 2011|title=Lyonel Feininger|url=http://americansymphony.org/lyonel-feininger/|access-date=2018-02-05|publisher=American Symphony Orchestra}}</ref>

His sons, [[Andreas Feininger]] and [[T. Lux Feininger]], both became noted artists, the former as a photographer and the latter as a photographer and painter. T. Lux Feininger died July 7, 2011, at the age of 101.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/arts/t-lux-feininger-photographer-and-painter-dies-at-101.html|title=T. Lux Feininger, Photographer and Painter, Dies at 101|first=William|last=Grimes|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 13, 2011}}</ref>

==Major retrospectives==

A major retrospective exhibition of Lyonel Feininger's work was put on in 2011–2012: it opened initially at the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]], June 30 through October 16, 2011, subsequently at the [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]], January 1 through May 13, 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/exhibitions/past/#toggle-id-63|publisher=The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts|location=Montreal, Quebec|title=Past Exhibitions|access-date=2019-02-05}}</ref> The exhibition is described as "the first in Feininger's native country in more than forty-five years, and the first ever to include the full breadth of his art" and as "accompanied by a richly illustrated monograph with a feature essay that provides a broad overview of Feininger's career..."<ref>{{cite web|title=Lyonel Feininger at the Edge of the World|publisher=Whitney Museum of American Art|date=October 6, 2011|url=http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/LyonelFeininger|access-date=2018-02-05}}</ref> Many critics have argued that the artist's work was at its most mature around 1910 in works in which the power of Feininger as illustrator balance his abstract side; however, we have to consider the possibility that Feininger used [[Cubism]] as a more artistically succinct tool to establish his version of the concept known as the objective correlative.

An important retrospective exhibition of Lyonel Feininger's photographic work took place Germany and the USA in 2011–2012, from [[Berlin]] (Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen) to Cambridge, [[Massachusetts]] ([[Harvard Art Museums|Busch-Reisinger Museum]]), through [[Munich]] ([[Pinakothek der Moderne]]) and Los Angeles ([[J. Paul Getty Museum]]).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Muir|first=Laura|url=|title=Lyonel Feininger: Photographs 1928–1939|date=2011-02-01|publisher=Hatje Cantz|isbn=978-3775727891|series=|language=English}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
In Robert M. Pirsig's ''[[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]]'' (1974) the narrator finds a print of Feininger's "Church of the Minorites" hanging in the office that used to be his in his earlier life as Phaedrus.
He writes that his friend "had frowned because it was a print and prints are of art and not art themselves [...] But the print had an appeal to him that was irrelevant to the art in that the subject, a kind of Gothic cathedral, created from semiabstract lines and planes and colors and shades, seemed to reflect his mind's vision of the Church of Reason and that was why he'd put it here." Finding the print jolts loose "an avalanche of memory" of the very place his madness started.<ref name="Pirsig 1974 p. 180">{{cite book |last=Pirsig |first=Robert M. |url=https://archive.org/details/zenartofmotorcyc00pirsrich/page/180/mode/2up |title=Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance |publisher=Morrow |year=1974 |publication-place=New York |page=180 |isbn=9780688002305 |oclc=600362397 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

==Art market==
At a 2001 [[Christie's]] auction in London, Feininger's painting ''The Green Bridge'' (1909) was sold for £2.42 million.<ref>Souren Melikian (June 30, 2001), [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/30/style/30iht-souren_ed2_.html Market Goes Its Own Way With Record Prices] ''[[International Herald Tribune]]''</ref>

At a 2007 Sotheby's auction in New York, Feininger's oil painting "Jesuits III" (1915) sold for $23,280,000.<ref name="LotSearch 2017">{{cite web |title=Lot number 22, Lyonel Feininger 1871 – 1956 JESUITEN III (JESUITS III) |website=LotSearch |date=2017-06-12 |url=https://www.lotsearch.net/lot/lyonel-feininger-1871-1956-jesuiten-iii-jesuits-iii-signed-feininger-20906667 |access-date=2019-06-22}}</ref>

At a 2017 [[Sotheby's]] auction in New York, Feininger's oil painting ''Fin de séance'' (1910) sold for $5,637,500.<ref>[http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/impressionist-modern-art-evening-sale-n09710/lot.41.html?locale=en Sotheby's New York], 16 May 2017</ref>

== 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, Germany)
* 1916, ''Grüne Brücke II'' (Green Bridge II), ([[North Carolina Museum of Art]], Raleigh)
* 1918, ''Teltow II'', (Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin)
* 1918, "Yellow Streets II", (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Montréal)
* 1920, ''Ostsee-Segelboote II'', (Private collection, Wichita, KS)
* 1922, ''Church of Heiligenhafen'', ([[Reynolda House Museum of American Art]], Winston-Salem, NC)
* 1925, ''Barfüßerkirche in Erfurt I'', ([[Staatsgalerie Stuttgart]])
* 1926, ''Barfüßerkirche II'' (''Church of the Minorites II'')
* 1929, ''Halle, Am Trödel'', ([[Bauhaus-Archive]], Berlin)
* 1931, ''Die Türme über der Stadt (Halle)'', (Museum Ludwig, Köln)
* 1936, ''Gelmeroda XIII'', ([[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York)
* 1940, ''The River'', ([[Worcester Art Museum]], MA)

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|title=The Comic Strip Art of Lyonel Feininger|last=Blackbeard|first=Bill|publisher=Kitchen Sink Press|isbn=0-87816-293-3|year=1994}}
* {{cite book|title=Lyonel Feininger: City at the Edge of the World|first=T. Lux|last=Feininger|publisher=Frederick A. Praeger|year=1965|lccn=65-25280}}
* Haskell, Barbara. ''Lyonel Feininger: At The Edge of the World''. Exhibition Catalogue. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2011
* {{cite book|title=Lyonel Feininger|first=June|last=Ness|publisher=Frederick A. Praeger|year=1974|lccn=72-888673}}
* {{cite book|title=Lyonel Feininger|first=Marsden|last=Hartley|publisher=Museum of Modern Art, New York|year=1944}}
* Muir, Laura and Nathan Timpano. ''Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939''. Cambridge: Harvard Art Museums and [[Hatje Cantz Verlag|Hatje Cantz]], 2011
* Nisbet, Peter. ''Lyonel Feininger: Drawings and Watercolors''. Cambridge: Harvard Art Museums and Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2011

==External links==
{{Commons category|Lyonel Feininger}}
{{external links|date=December 2016}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Lyonel Feininger}}
* Feininger retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York [http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/LyonelFeininger Lyonel Feininger: At the Edge of the World]
* [https://archive.today/20130103185940/http://www.lyonelfeiningerproject.com/ Lyonel Feininger Project]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100514230911/http://www.moellerfineart.com/artists/lyonel-feininger/ Moeller Fine Art – Lyonel Feininger] Moeller Fine Art, New York + Berlin, world expert on Lyonel Feininger
* [http://cartoons.osu.edu/digital_albums/lyonelfeininger/ The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: Lyonel Feininger digital exhibit]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/feiningr.htm Lyonel Feininger] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20150416004350/http://toonopedia.com/feiningr.htm Archived] from the original on April 15, 2015.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090418184631/http://www.ludorff.com/ap/feininger/feiningere.html Available Works and Biography] Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf, Germany
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100514230911/http://www.moellerfineart.com/artists/lyonel-feininger/ Biography]
* {{cite web |url=http://www.feininger-galerie.de/content/view/5/15/lang,en/ |title=Feininger-Galerie – Lyonel Feininger |publisher=Feininger-Galerie |location=Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany |access-date=5 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425142250/http://www.feininger-galerie.de/content/view/5/15/lang,en/ |archive-date=25 April 2012 }}

{{Der Blaue Reiter}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Feininger, Lyonel}}
[[Category:German male painters]]
[[Category:American male painters]]
[[Category:American comic strip cartoonists]]
[[Category:American comics artists]]
[[Category:German comics artists]]
[[Category:20th-century American illustrators]]
[[Category:20th-century German illustrators]]
[[Category:American caricaturists]]
[[Category:German caricaturists]]
[[Category:American humorists]]
[[Category:German humorists]]
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:1956 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century German painters]]
[[Category:20th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:20th-century American painters]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Bauhaus]]
[[Category:Chicago Tribune people]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Mills College faculty]]
[[Category:Modern painters]]
[[Category:Black Mountain College faculty]]
[[Category:Académie Colarossi alumni]]
[[Category:Painters from New York City]]
[[Category:American people of German descent]]