The first comprehensive overview of photographs by one of the most important artists of the 20th century.
Painter, printmaker, and draftsman Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) was one of the first masters appointed to teach at the Bauhaus, the innovative school for art, design, and architecture established by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. Like many other figures at the Bauhaus, Feininger turned to photography as a tool for visual exploration. Beginning in 1928 and for the next decade, he used the camera to explore transparency, reflection, night imagery, and the effects of light and shadow.
This exhibition offers the first opportunity to consider the origins of Feininger's photographic work at the Bauhaus and its development over a decade, expanding our understanding both of him as an artist and of the history of Modernist photography. A selection of photographs made by other Bauhaus masters and students, drawn from the J. Paul Getty Museum's permanent collection, complements Feininger's work and provides a context to better appreciate his engagement with the medium.
Explore the themes of the exhibition:
This exhibition offers the first opportunity to consider the origins of Feininger's photographic work at the Bauhaus and its development over a decade, expanding our understanding both of him as an artist and of the history of Modernist photography. A selection of photographs made by other Bauhaus masters and students, drawn from the J. Paul Getty Museum's permanent collection, complements Feininger's work and provides a context to better appreciate his engagement with the medium.
Explore the themes of the exhibition:
Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939 is on view October 25, 2011, to March 11, 2012, at the Getty Center, Center for Photographs (West Pavilion, Terrace Level). It was previously on view at the Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (February 26–May 15, 2011) and the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (June 2–July 17, 2011), and will subsequently be presented at the Harvard Art Museums (March 30 –June 2, 2012).
This exhibition was organized by the Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in cooperation with the J. Paul Getty Museum. The original exhibition, the tour, and the 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.
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