Lyonel Feininger. At the Edge of the World

Born and raised in New York, Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) moved at the age of sixteen to Germany, where he became on of the leading figures of German Expressionism and the Bauhaus. In the late 1930s, when the Nazi campaign against modern art forced him to flee back in New York after the absence of fifty years, his marriage of abstraction and recognizable imagery made him a beloved artist in the United States.

The comprehensive survey features works from throughout Feininger's diverse career, including his turn‑of‑the‑century satirical illustrations and comics, his carnivalesque Expressionist compositions and crystalline architectural scenes, his whimsical hand‑carved wood figures, and his late oils of New York. The mail essay discusses the full breadth of Feininger's life and career, tracing his relationship with groups and institutions that defined the development of modern art, including Cubism, the Blaue Reiter, the Blue Four, the Bauhaus, and Black Mountain College. Additional essays focus on Feininger's comics, his fugues, and his reputation in Germany.