Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger (Parents: Karl Feininger, a violinist, and Elizabeth Lutz, a singer; Spouse: Julia Berg; Sons: Andreas, Laurence, and T. Lux Feininger)
Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) was a world-renowned painter, printmaker, and caricaturist who played a pivotal role in the development of modernism. Born in New York to German musicians, he moved to Germany at age 16 to pursue music but eventually shifted his focus to the visual arts, studying in Hamburg, Berlin, and Paris.
Feininger’s career is unique because it began in the world of commercial illustration. Before he was known as a fine artist, he was a highly successful caricaturist and comic strip artist. In 1906, he created two of the most visually experimental strips in early American comic history for the Chicago Tribune: The Kin-der-Kids and Wee Willie Winkie’s World. These works showcased his signature use of elongated figures and architectural geometry.
His transition to fine art was marked by his association with the Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) groups. In 1919, Walter Gropius invited him to become the first faculty member (Master of the Print Workshop) at the newly formed Bauhaus. It was Feininger who designed the iconic woodcut, Cathedral, which graced the cover of the Bauhaus Manifesto.
Feininger developed a style often described as “Prismism.” This was a personal form of Cubism where he broke down subjects—most notably Gothic cathedrals, seascapes, and sailboats—into overlapping, translucent planes of color. These interlocking geometric shapes created a sense of light and crystalline structure that gave his work a spiritual, musical quality.
When the Nazi party rose to power and labeled his work as “degenerate art” (Entartete Kunst), Feininger returned to the United States in 1937. He spent his later years in New York, where he continued to paint urban landscapes that applied his European Cubist sensibilities to the skyscrapers of Manhattan.
Active in others filds : Music Composition (Fugues), Photography, Toy Design, Comic Strips, Printmaking.
