Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger

Lyonel Feininger
1871–1956

Born as Lyonel Charles Adrian (actually: Carl Léonell) Feininger in New York City on 17 July 1871 to German-American musicians (father Karl Friedrich (later Charles) Feininger: concert violinist; mother Elizabeth Cecilia Lutz: singer, pianist).

1887 Travels to Germany; attends Hamburg School of Arts and Crafts, drawing lessons
1888 Studies at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin, painting class
1889 First work as a caricaturist
1890 Attends the Collège Saint Servais, Liège
1892–1893 Studies at the Académie Colarossi, Paris
1893 Returns to Berlin; works as a freelance illustrator and caricaturist for various newspapers and magazines
1901 Marriage to the pianist Clara Fürst; birth of first daughter Eleonore (called Lore)
1902 Birth of second daughter Marianne
1905 Acquaintance with the artist Julia Berg; separation from Clara Feininger
1906–1908 Lives with Julia Berg in Paris; attends drawing classes at the Académie Colarossi; birth of first son Andreas; works on the comic series “The Kin-der-Kids” and “Wee Willie Winkie's World”
1907 Discovers painting, first oil painting
1908 Moves to Berlin; marries Julia Berg
1909 Birth of second son Laurence; member of the “Berlin Secession”
1910 Birth of the third son Theodore Lux
1911 Participates in the “Salon de Indépendants”, Paris; encounters Cubism
1912 Encounter with the artists' group “Brücke” (Bridge)
1913 Participates in the “First German Autumn Salon”, gallery “Der Sturm” (The Storm), Berlin; leaves the “Berlin Secession”
1917 First solo exhibition, gallery “Der Sturm”, Berlin
1917/18 Stays in Braunlage, Harz; involvement with woodcuts
1918 Member of the “Novembergruppe” (November Group); acquaintance with Walter Gropius
1919 Appointed master at the State Bauhaus Weimar; moves to Weimar; designs the title page of the Bauhaus Manifesto, woodcut “Cathedral”; member of the “Arbeitsrat für Kunst” (Working Council for Art)
1920 First museum exhibition at the Angermuseum Erfurt
1921 Appointed head of the Bauhaus workshop “Graphische Druckerei” (Graphic Print Shop); publication of the first Bauhaus folder (“Twelve Woodcuts by Lyonel Feininger”); composition of his first fugue
1924 Founds the exhibition group “Die Blaue Vier” (The Blue Four) with Galka Scheyer, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky and Paul Klee
1925 First exhibition of “Die Blaue Vier”, New York City
1926 Moves with the Bauhaus to Dessau; moves into one of the master houses; master without teaching obligations
1929–1931 Works on a portrait of the city of Halle (Saale). Creates an 11-part series of paintings.
1930 Acquaintance and friendship with the Quedlinburg jurist and Bauhaus student Dr Hermann Klumpp
1931 Retrospectives for his 60th birthday in Dresden, Essen and Berlin
1933 Moves to Berlin
1936 Stay in the USA with Julia; lecturer at Mills College, Oakland, California; return to Berlin
1937 Emigrates with Julia to the USA; again lecturer at Mills College, Oakland, California; settles in New York City; first works with American motifs
1939/40 Participation in the “New York World's Fair”
1940 Begins a series of Manhattan paintings
1944 Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City
1945 Lecturer at Black Mountain College, Asheville, North Carolina
1947 Elected president of the Federation of American Painters and Sculptors
1950 Member of the “Deutscher Künstlerbund 1950” (German Artists' Association 1950); participates in exhibitions in Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main, Baden-Baden, Düsseldorf
1955 Elected Member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
Dies on 13 January 1956 in New York City.