Born in New York City, Lyonel Feininger studied painting in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany, and in Paris, France, between 1887 and 1893. He was an illustrator and caricaturist for several periodicals in Paris and Germany and had a weekly comic page in the "Chicago Tribune" (1906-7) before he turned to easel painting in 1907. In 1911, under the influence of the French Cubists—particularly Robert Delaunay—he turned seriously to painting and began exhibiting in 1919 with Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a German association of expressionist artists. From 1919 to 1933, Feininger served on the faculty at the Bauhaus in Germany. His canvases appeared in the so-called degenerate art exhibition of 1933.
Feininger returned permanently to the United States in 1937, where he taught at Mills College and exhibited extensively. Feininger was fascinated by sailboats and skyscrapers, themes that appear in many of his oils and watercolors. He developed a delicate geometric style with interlocking translucent planes, suggestive of both light rays and architectural forms. In mature works such as "Gelmeroda VIII", 1921 (coll. Whitney Museum, New York), his virtuosic use of overlapping veils of colored light creates an effect of dematerialization and mystery. Works by Lyonel Feininger are included in many prominent public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
