Lyonel Feininger: View from the window of his New Yorker Studio (1939)
Lyonel Feininger: View from the window of his New Yorker Studio (1939)
Obgleich wir nun schon über zehn Jahre in New York wohnen, haben wir immer noch Hemmungen, richtige New Yorker zu werden, wir sind entweder fasciniert oder entsetzt über diese Stadt, die, seit Leo als Kind und junger Mensch hier lebte, sich derart verändert hat, dass er seine eigene Heimat nicht wiedererkennt – für mich ist die erste Begeisterung auch etwas abgemildert, da es wirklich äusserst schwer ist, sich mit den gegebenen Verhältnissen abzufinden. Besonders der Lärm und – verzeihen Sie – der Dreck, sind einfach unüberwindlich.
[Although we have lived in New York for over 10 years, we still have our inhibitions about becoming proper New Yorkers. We are either fascinated or horrified by this – a city which has changed so much during the time Leo has spent here as a child and young man, that he no longer recognises his own homeland. For me the initial enthusiasm has also subsided somewhat, since it is extremely difficult to come to terms with the conditions here. The noise and, forgive me, the dirt in particular are simply insurmountable. (ed. trans.)]
Julia Feininger in a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Ralfs, dated April 21, 1947
After Lyonel Feininger had finished teaching a summer course at Mills College, California, the Feiningers moved to New York – the centre of American cultural life. They spent their first months on the US east coast staying the Hotel Earle on Washington Square until they found a suitable apartment. Their small Murray Hill dwelling, with its view of the local overhead railway and adjacent intersection, was to be Lyonel Feininger’s home until his death. The painter Mark Tobey, who Feininger met at an exhibition in New York’s Willard Gallery in 1943, was a resident of the same neighbourhood.
Up until 1933, the Feiningers had lived a peaceful life in the green surroundings of the Bauhaus-designed “Meisterhaussiedlung” (“Master House Estate”) in Dessau. But in spring 1933, after a search of the property by the Nazi authorities, the Feiningers were forced to abandon their spacious rooms, ample studios and accommodating sun decks. The Bauhaus master artist spent a period with his family in Berlin’s Siemensstadt before ultimately returning to the USA.
New York’s skyscrapers unsettled the painter upon his arrival. But finally, in 1940, he accepted them as a theme for his work. He produced ethereal visions, both painted and drawn, of the structures that dominated the New York skyline. Motifs centred around giant towers had already been an aspect of Feininger’s European work: towers of historical buildings such as those of the churches of Gelmeroda and Halle and the gate tower of Ribnitz-Damgarten, were recurring motifs. The exuberant life of the urban metropolis, including its vehicles and inhabitants, were notably absent from his paintings.
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