SCHIRN NEWSROOM: Lyonel Feininger: Retrospective

LYONEL FEININGER: RETROSPECTIVE

OCTOBER 27, 2023 – FEBRUARY 18, 2024

The German-American artist Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) is a classic name in modern art. The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is dedicating the first major retrospective in Germany in over twenty-five years to this important painter and graphic artist, portraying a comprehensive and surprising overview of his creative work. Feininger is famous for his paintings of buildings, crystalline architectures in unmistakable monumentality, and harmonious colors. However, today’s approach often overlooks the originality and wealth of artistic facets in his oeuvre, which reflects many aspects of modernism. The Schirn presents main works which are seldom on view and also little-known series like the artist’s recently rediscovered photographs.

Lyonel Feininger, Self Portrait, 1915, Oil on linen, 100.3 x 80 cm, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund, 2014.756, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023

The Schirn dedicates the first major retrospective in Germany in over 25 years to the important painter and graphic artist Lyonel Feininger

At an early stage, Feininger developed a highly individual illustrative style as a graphic artist and caricaturist. In addition to central works from his early figurative phase, including political caricatures, humorous-grotesque townscapes, and carnivalesque figures, the exhibition also illustrates his role as one of the first Bauhaus instructors and as a master of graphic techniques such as the drawing and the woodcut. A particular focus lies on Feininger’s pivotal works from the 1930s and his exile in America. The exhibition illuminates important themes and lines of development with over 160 paintings, drawings, caricatures, watercolors, woodcuts, photographs, and objects that make Feininger’s work distinctive and unique.

CURATOR

Ingrid Pfeiffer, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

Lyonel Feininger, Zirchow VII, 1918, Oil on canvas, 80.7 x 100.6 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Julia Feininger, 1966.3.1, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023

To accompany the exhibition, the Schirn is offering a Digitorial® that offers fascinating information about the artist and his work.

This free-of-charge digital educational offering can be accessed in German and English. For Smartphone, Tablet and Desktop.

TO THE DIGITORIAL

CATALOG

On the basis of over 160 key works, this comprehensive monograph offers a panoramic view of the entire œuvre of painter, caricaturist and Bauhaus teacher Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956).

LYONEL FEININGER: RETROSPECTIVE, edited by Ingrid Pfeiffer, with essays by Ute Ackermann, Sebastian Ehlert, Anna Huber, Gloria Köpnick, Franziska Lampe, Barbara Leven, Achim Moeller and Ingrid Pfeiffer, as well as a foreword by Sebastian Baden, Director of the Schirn. Separate German and English editions, 272 pages each, approx. 220 illustrations each, 24 x 29 cm, hardcover, Hirmer Verlag, 978-3-7774-4178-8 (English edition), € 39 (Schirn) and € 49.90 (bookstore)

Press Texts

Press information "Lyonel Feininger: Retrospective"

26.10.2023 | From October 27, 2023, to February 18, 2024, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is dedicating an extensive retrospective to the important painter and graphic artist—the first in Germany in twenty-five years—thus providing an in-depth and surprising overall picture of his work.

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Wall panels of the exhibition "Lyonel Feininger: Retrospective"

26.10.2023 | Here you can read the wall panels of the exhibition"Lyonel Feininger: Retrospective".

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Press Images

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