FINDING FEININGER
DISCLAIMER. I do not Claim to be an Art History Expert, I am a visual artist who deeply understands art on a kinetic and intrinsic level. These works are written to help people better understand modern art, how to look at art, how art became to be the beast it is now and what art is. This is especially true when I am taking about art rather than writing about it, as video is a new media for me. Videos are often shot in one take with out prior preparation. thereby giving the audience my automatic reaction to the artist’s work. Therefore mistakes can be made. I often know a period , a style or an image, although I may not know the exact date or it’s exact place in history. Such is the case in this video where I make a few mistakes such as mixing up the influence of George Baroque, one of the recognized creates of Cubism with the Barques period a mistake made not only due to the similarities in names, but also due to the fact of the image’s colors I am referring to which consist of muted Burgundies and Ochers, accentuated by a highlighted areas (14.42 mark). my brain also associates these aesthetics with the Barques period. I am also well aware Van Gogh was Expressionist (who were concerned with the reflection of light, color and the shape of form) not a Fauvist(which stood for WILD BEASTS due to the lack of use of perspective and formal rendering) my thought get lost as a sentence lingers while looking at other works. I am also more than a little nervous speaking about an artist I am seeing for the first time. The Video created was created to give the viewer an an over all IDEA of this ARTIST’S LEGACY and how that legacy sat in the space of history. That being said….
Lyonel Feininger was an American/European artist whose body of work span through out the period recognized as the period that created modern art. MODERNISM loosely defined is the period of art spanning from the Impressionist (from the 1880′s whose main concern was how light and color reflected off it’s subject) until sometime in the 50′s. He was born in Manhattan to parents of German descent who in 1887 sent their son to study music, the family “trade” in Germany. Upon his arrival he finds himself immersed in the cultural revolution known as Modernism that is sweeping Europe. Using the the temporary closing of the music school as an excuse he enrolls in art school and quickly gains recognition for his illustrative talents and creative talents. Being recognized for his caricatures he commences his career as an illustrator.
Finding himself among the German Expressionist (who are noted for their print making) Feininger gives up illustration for canvas and oil paints delving deeply into the creative arts.(Daumier was caricature illustrator who gained a reputation in the fine arts). Depicting modernity, life in the city, through color, form and division of space. He also explored sculpture through tiny Marquette created for his children. Works through out this period reference every movement of Modern art while continually maintaining a certain satirical illustrative feel. Figures are sometimes given a carnivalesque feeling through the use of elongation , disproportion, flatness of form and even the use of satirical attire or facial expression. With his discovery of cubism he delves into the division of space and form through geometric shape. In this period muted colors accentuated the vibrant and explosive ones from the last. figures used are still rendered in similar style as before remaining lighthearted and warm, the environments now seem to have a more foreboding feeling or a certain heaviness. Possibly influenced due to the heated political climate in Germany an being considered an enemy of the state.
In 1919 he was appointed as one of the head figures of The Bauhaus school and movement.(Here I am a little out of my league cause as far as I am aware Bauhaus was a goth band that recorded “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” snicker snicker)
Noted as a prominent figure in the school and movement, even being commissioned designing the cover of the groups Manifesto(above image) as commissioned by the founder Walter Gropius. He remained head of the school’s graphic component until 1933 at which time the NAZIS the school down. In 1937 his family flees Germany to avoid persecution. shortly after his departure his work has the HONOR of being hung in the NAZI’S infamous DEGENERATE ART Exhibition. HONOR stated as such that anyone who did such DESPICABLE hings as the Nazis did calling you a DEGENERATE is probably not a bad thing. His works hung side by side that of Otto Dix, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee as well as any other artist whose work did not conform to the new aesthetic of German “neoclassicism”.Which was based on the the IDEALS of the UBER HUMAN or an ARCHETYPAL view of the PERFECT ARYAN. Which just as neoclassicism in France took it’s aesthetics from Greek sculpture.
Upon his return to the United States after a brief “creative” pause(possibly due to a broken heart, seeing the ideals of his world shattered and having had to flee Europe, seeing so many persecuted) he continued to create until his passing in 1956.
The most compelling thing about this artist’s work was not the time line in which he created nor the artists whom he rubbed shoulders with, who influenced him or whom he may have influenced. It’s not even the body of work for which he is celebrated today. What is truly enthralling is his dedication to art itself. Which can be clearly seen through out the studies he created from the beginning to the end of his creative legacy. Captivating renderings of subject matters as simple as; still life drawings, portraits, and architectural studies show his decisive hand creating meticulous compositions of life like objects describing the world in which he lived and the things that surrounded him. The playfulness of his painting stand unto their own also. Dreamlike images in an ethereal world that speak to us on a physiological level of what the word “humanity” means. Through out all his work regardless of the medium a certain quality flows giving reference to the artist’s own history as a creator while also referencing the changing world around him. There by giving us insight of what it meant to be human what it means to be human and how we survive the trials and tribulations of art. Which is what art is truly meant to do. Describe the world in which we live and how we as a species continue persevere and evolve.
