Lyonel Feininger
From the town at the end of the world to the Baltic Sea
In spring 2025, the Ahlers Pro Arte Foundation will present the work of the German-American Lyonel Feininger. Feininger, who was born in New York in 1871 as the son of German emigrants, has been one of the most important and popular artists in Germany ever since he was appointed “master” at the newly founded Bauhaus in Weimar in 1919. His pictures are presented in museums and exhibitions worldwide.
The exhibition, which includes around 70 works, provides an overview of the painter and graphic artist's entire artistic work. His caricatures, with which he made a name for himself in Germany around 1900 and which form the basis for his grotesque figure compositions created before the First World War, are almost unknown. With the discovery of the Thuringian village churches and, at the latest, from 1922 onwards with the experience of the Baltic Sea, Feininger's imagery changed, condensing into spatially fragmented and atmospherically charged, complex compositions. When he returned to his home town in 1937, he had to leave his beloved motifs behind in Germany. Branded as a “degenerate” artist by the National Socialists, a late work was created in New York until his death in 1956, which, based on memory, repeatedly took up compositions from his time in Germany.
„God forgive me for the bad image ... there is so much in me. Just don't be sad with me that I have to earn my money this way (...)“
Lyonel Feininger to Julia Berg, Berlin, November 5, 1905
Many of the exhibited works, including paintings and works on paper, but also three-dimensional objects, are provided by private lenders and are very rarely shown to the public.
The exhibition is curated by the world-renowned Feininger expert Dr. Ulrich Luckhardt from Hamburg.
Schedule
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Exhibition opening
Introduction to the exhibition: Dr. Ulrich Luckhardt, Hamburg -
Lecture by Dr. Martin Faass, Darmstadt
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Lecture by Dr. Ines Burdow, Berlin
Accompanying the exhibition exclusive curated guided tours will be organized.
The dates will be available shortly.
Copyright VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
(1st row from left to right) Lyonel Feininger, Rotes Meer und blaue Barke, 1912, Private ownership. Lyonel Feininger, Die Stadt am Ende der Welt, 1910, Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt, Museum Lyonel Feininger, Stiftung Lyonel-Feininger-Sammlung Armin Rühl. Lyonel Feininger, Wharf, 1934, Private ownership. (2nd row from left to right) Lyonel Feininger, Stiller Tag am Meer I, 1926, Private ownership. Lyonel Feininger, Karnaval, 1915, Private collection, Courtesy Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art. Lyonel Feininger, Melancholy, 12. Februar 1911, Private collection.