LYONEL FEININGER American/German, 1871-1956

Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) is regarded as one of the defining figures of Classical Modernism and one of the leading representatives of the European avant-garde. From the early 1910s onwards, he developed a distinctive visual language in which Cubist principles merge with an expressive treatment of space, architecture, and light. As one of the first masters at the Bauhaus, Feininger established his characteristic vocabulary of architectural and landscape compositions, which ranks among the most distinctive achievements of European modernism. In addition to painting, Feininger's oeuvre encompasses drawings, watercolors, printmaking, and photography. His works combine constructive rigor with an atmospheric treatment of light and a crystalline formal language that defines his artistic practice. Works by Lyonel Feininger are held in major international museum and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin. Through his work, Feininger made a decisive contribution to the development of modern painting and the artistic legacy of the Bauhaus.