Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928-1939
One of the most versatile talents of the modern art movement in Germany, the American-born Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) is celebrated as a master of caricature, figurative painting, and a distinctive brand of cubism, but he also created a fascinating body of photographic work that is virtually unknown. Drawn primarily from the artist’s own collection (now at Harvard University), this exhibition offers the first opportunity to consider his achievement within the medium. Focusing on the rich and productive period between 1928 and the late 1930s, when Feininger was experimenting with an array of avant-garde photographic techniques and printing his own work, these photographs range from early atmospheric night views made at the Bauhaus (where he took up the camera in 1928) to bird’s-eye views of New York City (where he settled permanently in 1937).
The Sackler Museum is the final venue for this traveling exhibition. Selected drawings and watercolors by the artist from the Art Museums’ collections will also be on view. Curated by Laura Muir, Assistant Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums. Organized by the Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, in cooperation with the Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
The exhibition, tour, and catalogue were funded through the generosity of the German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Dedalus Foundation, Inc., and the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer Jr. Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums. The exhibition at the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum is made possible also by the Alexander S., Robert L., and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund; Anthony and Celeste Meier Exhibitions Fund; Charlotte and Irving Rabb Exhibition Fund; and Melvin R. Seiden and Janine Luke Fund for Publications and Exhibitions.
Research Tool: A searchable database of the more than 18,000 photographic objects housed in the Busch-Reisinger Museum’s Lyonel Feininger Archive is available at this link.
Other Harvard exhibition: Harvard’s Houghton Library houses Lyonel Feininger’s extensive correspondence and is the primary lender to the Art Museums’ exhibition Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939. A photo album compiled by the artist and letters in which he discusses his photography will be on view on the lower level of Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, from March 5 through June 2, 2012.
Related Publications
Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928-1939
Laura Muir ISBN 978-1-891771-56-9 Available 2011 152 pages; 8×10-3/4 in. 111 color illustrations Cloth, $45.00 Published by the Harvard Art Museums and Hatje Cantz Verlag Winner, German Photo Book Award in Gold 2012 One of the most versatile talents of the modern art movement in Germany, the American-born Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) is celebrated as a master of caricature, figurative painting, and his own distinctive brand of cubism, but he also created a fascinating body of photographic work that is virtually unknown. This catalogue accompanies a traveling exhibition—with venues in Berlin, Munich, Los Angeles, and Cambridge, MA—that is the first to be devoted to Feininger’s photographs. Reproducing 76 vintage prints as full-color plates, the book focuses on the rich and productive period between 1928 and the late 1930s, when Feininger was experimenting with an array of avant-garde photographic techniques and printing his own work, ranging from early atmospheric night views made at the Bauhaus (where he took up the camera in 1928) to bird’s-eye views of New York City (where he settled permanently in 1937). Never shared with the public during his lifetime, the photographs are drawn primarily from Feininger’s own collection (now at Harvard University’s Houghton Library). The catalogue includes an essay by exhibition curator Laura Muir, which explores the origins of Feininger’s photographic work at the Bauhaus, its development over the next decade, and its complex and ambivalent relationship to his work in other media. Based on Feininger’s correspondence, interviews with his son T. Lux, who witnessed his father’s work firsthand, and the artist’s collection of negatives in the Busch-Reisinger Museum’s Lyonel Feininger Archive, the catalogue presents a wealth of new information that dramatically expands our view of Feininger as an artist and the history of modernist photography. Laura Muir is assistant curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum. About the German Photo Book Award: The Feininger photographs catalogue has been awarded gold by the German Photo Book prize 2012. The jury referred to Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939 as a “small, but sparkling art historical treasure. It is the first publication of the photographs of Lyonel Feininger and covers this unknown terrain in exemplary fashion. The texts are intelligible, the layout clear, the printing excellent, and the noticeably small format not pulled from thin air, but well-founded. Lyonel Feininger made his own prints, and in small formats. In several cases the reproductions in this book have the same measurements as the vintage prints.” Research Tool: A searchable database of the more than 18,000 photographic objects housed in the Busch-Reisinger Museum’s Lyonel Feininger Archive is available at harvardartmuseums.org/feiningerphotographs.
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