Lot 382 D

Lyonel Feininger's immigration to New York, the city of his birth, in June 1937 was a new beginning for him, especially considering his largely unknown status in the USA at this time. His artistic breakthrough in America was achieved in 1944 with a retrospective exhibition in the New York Museum of Modern Art. The works created following his arrival in America took up old motifs, but primarily documented the artist's reactions to his new surroundings. Feininger had taught at the Bauhaus School in Germany for many years before the move, and was invited by Josef Albers to teach a summer course at Black Mountain College in North Carolina in 1945. Walter Gropius led the architectural discussion, whilst Feininger, Robert Motherwell and Ossip Zadkine taught fine arts.
The present colourful watercolour and pen drawing shows five small figures before a landscape background typical of this artist, resembling icebergs. The work reiterates motifs from Feininger's humorous, caricature-like “Kinderzeichnungen“ (children's drawings), which he made between 1916 and 1921. He also retained the technique developed during this time: Fine ink lines form the delicate foundations of the composition. The black ink has been partially applied to the dampened paper to create appealing, blossom-like effects, lending the painting a flickering, mystical aura. The colours are limited to localised vivid accents: The focus clearly lies on the rhombic area of green with the coloured figures. Next to his stark, often geometric compositions, this late work manages to retain a light and playful quality, illustrating Feininger's indomitable freshness and virtuosity.