When struck by the urge
to paint seriously in 1906, American-born
Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger (1871-1956)
was an
internationally known political cartoonist and comic-strip artist, published in Europe and the USA and
considered one of Germany's best caricaturists. For several
subsequent years, he divided his time between Berlin and Paris, cities
where he previously studied in youth, and in France he was greatly
influenced by the Cubist movement.
Intrigued by how Cubism
fractured an image into its parts, he was also moved by the strict
architectural patterns of Bach's music to create its visual
equivalent. A clear correspondence holds between the translucent,
overlapping, repeated geometric forms he created and the contrapuntal
character of fugues. (An accomplished pianist and violinist from a
musical family, Feininger composed fugues.)
Due to his
involvement with the 'Blue Rider' group, he was invited to exhibit at
the 1911 Salon des Independents, and the architectural nature of his
Cubist townscapes was particularly appreciated in architectural
circles. With the Walter Gropius, he co-founded the Bauhaus, the
legendary design school whose aim was to join art and
architecture. Through its first six years, he taught there,
settling in Weimar, where the museum featured his work jointly with that
of Paul Klee in 1921.
Hitler closed the Bauhaus in 1933 and, Germany having become entirely inhospitable to modernists, Feininger returned
to the United States. He taught at Mills College for two years, then settled in his native New York City.
BELOW:
The Green Bridge II, 1916, oil on canvas.
Yellow Street II, 1918, oil on canvas.
The Bicycle Race, 1912, oil on canvas.
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