Becoming Feininger

Almost exactly 100 years ago, in December 1920, the first graphic portfolio of the Bauhaus in Weimar was published under the title "Twelve Woodcuts by Lyonel Feininger." The exhibition “Becoming Feininger” includes examples of these prints from the collection of the Kunstmuseum Moritzburg in Halle (Saale). The images offer a representative cross section of the artist’s brilliant work in woodcut printing, a medium he had been engaged with since 1918. There are extraordinary examples of this work in the collection of Dr. Hermann Klumpp. These two collections of Feininger’s work, now under the capable management of the Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt, allow us to present a grand tour of the artist’s oeuvre on the occasion of his 150th birthday. Our ability to present the artist’s beginnings so vividly is thanks to a third collection, that of Armin Rühl. Uniting early work from the 1890s up until the beginning of the twentieth century, this collection includes unique drawings and gouaches that attest to the intelligence and ­humour that made Feininger’s magazine cartoons so exceptional.