Biography on lyonel feininger
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In 1924, he joined forces with Alexej von Jawlensky, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky to form the exhibition group “The Blue Four”. Based on his long time as a caricaturist, the artist developed a very distinctive painting style.
The Berlin Years of Lyonel Feininger
In 1901 the artist married Clara Fürst, with whom he had two daughters.
A year later, in 1888, he was accepted at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin, where he attended Ernst Hancke’s painting class. Feininger’s first solo exhibition opened on 2 September 1917 at the gallery “Der Sturm” in Berlin, showing more than 100 paintings and other works.
Lyonel Feininger at the Bauhaus
In May 1919, Lyonel Feininger was one of the first masters to be appointed by Walter Gropius to the State Bauhaus in Weimar, where he was master printer from 1919 to 1925.
Creates an 11-part series of paintings.
1930 Acquaintance and friendship with the Quedlinburg jurist and Bauhaus student Dr Hermann Klumpp
1931 Retrospectives for his 60th birthday in Dresden, Essen and Berlin
1933 Moves to Berlin
1936 Stay in the USA with Julia; lecturer at Mills College, Oakland, California; return to Berlin
1937 Emigrates with Julia to the USA; again lecturer at Mills College, Oakland, California; settles in New York City; first works with American motifs
1939/40 Participation in the “New York World's Fair”
1940 Begins a series of Manhattan paintings
1944 Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City
1945 Lecturer at Black Mountain College, Asheville, North Carolina
1947 Elected president of the Federation of American Painters and Sculptors
1950 Member of the “Deutscher Künstlerbund 1950” (German Artists' Association 1950); participates in exhibitions in Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main, Baden-Baden, Düsseldorf
1955 Elected Member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
Dies on 13 January 1956 in New York City.
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In 1911, several of Feininger’s paintings were exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Indépendants (“Salon of Independent Artists”) in Paris.Klee, Feininger and Kandinsky taught at the Bauhaus, while Jawlensky worked as a freelance artist.
The period of Lyonel Feininger’s emigration
During the National Socialist era, Feininger’s works were officially considered “degenerate art”.
Lyonel Feininger
Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger (* 17 July 1871 in New York; † 13 January 1956 ibid.) was a painter and caricaturist of German-American descent.
Lyonel Feininger’s artistic career
Lyonel Feininger took drawing lessons at the Hamburg Gewerbeschule at the age of 16.
The following year, he moved to the USA for good. From now on, the city dominated as a pictorial theme. This was a balance that would dominate Bauhaus ideology in its early years.
Woodcut - The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger
Lyonel Feininger
1871–1956
Born as Lyonel Charles Adrian (actually: Carl Léonell) Feininger in New York City on 17 July 1871 to German-American musicians (father Karl Friedrich (later Charles) Feininger: concert violinist; mother Elizabeth Cecilia Lutz: singer, pianist).
1887 Travels to Germany; attends Hamburg School of Arts and Crafts, drawing lessons
1888 Studies at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin, painting class
1889 First work as a caricaturist
1890 Attends the Collège Saint Servais, Liège
1892–1893 Studies at the Académie Colarossi, Paris
1893 Returns to Berlin; works as a freelance illustrator and caricaturist for various newspapers and magazines
1901 Marriage to the pianist Clara Fürst; birth of first daughter Eleonore (called Lore)
1902 Birth of second daughter Marianne
1905 Acquaintance with the artist Julia Berg; separation from Clara Feininger
1906–1908 Lives with Julia Berg in Paris; attends drawing classes at the Académie Colarossi; birth of first son Andreas; works on the comic series “The Kin-der-Kids” and “Wee Willie Winkie's World”
1907 Discovers painting, first oil painting
1908 Moves to Berlin; marries Julia Berg
1909 Birth of second son Laurence; member of the “Berlin Secession”
1910 Birth of the third son Theodore Lux
1911 Participates in the “Salon de Indépendants”, Paris; encounters Cubism
1912 Encounter with the artists' group “Brücke” (Bridge)
1913 Participates in the “First German Autumn Salon”, gallery “Der Sturm” (The Storm), Berlin; leaves the “Berlin Secession”
1917 First solo exhibition, gallery “Der Sturm”, Berlin
1917/18 Stays in Braunlage, Harz; involvement with woodcuts
1918 Member of the “Novembergruppe” (November Group); acquaintance with Walter Gropius
1919 Appointed master at the State Bauhaus Weimar; moves to Weimar; designs the title page of the Bauhaus Manifesto, woodcut “Cathedral”; member of the “Arbeitsrat für Kunst” (Working Council for Art)
1920 First museum exhibition at the Angermuseum Erfurt
1921 Appointed head of the Bauhaus workshop “Graphische Druckerei” (Graphic Print Shop); publication of the first Bauhaus folder (“Twelve Woodcuts by Lyonel Feininger”); composition of his first fugue
1924 Founds the exhibition group “Die Blaue Vier” (The Blue Four) with Galka Scheyer, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky and Paul Klee
1925 First exhibition of “Die Blaue Vier”, New York City
1926 Moves with the Bauhaus to Dessau; moves into one of the master houses; master without teaching obligations
1929–1931 Works on a portrait of the city of Halle (Saale).
At the same time, he published caricatures in various German, French and US newspapers and magazines. At the same time, his use of abstraction in the form of the cathedral made it undeniably modern. Feininger died at the age of 84 in New York City, the city of his birth and eventually his adopted home.
1919
Cathedral
Feininger's woodcut appeared on the cover of the Bauhaus manifesto, representing the utopian vision of the school with a "Cathedral of Socialism." Deliberately using the Gothic cathedral to reference its communal sense of spiritual vision, as well as the joint effort of artists and artisans, this image spoke to the unique formulation of the Bauhaus, which sought to bring together "arts" and "crafts." Although the school would turn towards a machine aesthetic in the 1920s, its founding was marked by an interest in spiritual harmony, represented not simply by the church, but with the integration of that building into a dynamic, cosmic space of brilliant and reflecting light.
The Cubist fracturing of forms and Futurist dynamic force lines influenced the style of Feininger's woodcut, yet its execution was purposefully crude to evoke pre-industrial imperfections. Only four years later, after his acquaintance with Julia Berg, the marriage was divorced again. Two years later, the couple married.
In both subject and style, this print echoed the spirit of the manifesto itself, which spoke to the need for social change and revolution as well as the training of artists and craftsmen for a new age of rebuilding. In 1906, Feininger and Berg had a son together. With its transparencies and angular structure, Feininger's cathedral reflects the influence of Bruno Taut's utopian glass architecture.