Lyonel Feininger

United States / Germany, b.1871, d.1956

Gelbe Dorfkirche, 3

  • 1931
  • Woodcut
  • Purchased 1983
  • 310 x 510mm
  • 83/14

The village church theme was a favourite of Lyonel Feininger’s and dates from his earliest cubist printmaking. The Yellow Church 3 was printed in an edition of 130. Feininger always had an interest in architecture and he worked in a cubist style, which suited his sharp edged architectural themes. Born in New York, in 1887 Feininger was sent to study music in Germany. He very soon changed to study drawing at the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin and the Académie Colarossi, Paris. In the mid-1890s Feininger returned to Berlin, where he became a prominent illustrator for German satirical magazines. He later turned to painting and in 1919 was appointed the first master of the Bauhaus, the new School of Art of the Weimar Republic. Feininger contributed woodblock prints to Bauhaus publications, including the cover for the first manifesto. In 1937 he left Germany for the United States, eventually settling in New York. Late in his career Feininger was elected president of the Federation of American Painters and Sculptors.

Exhibition History