Zirchow VII

1918

Lyonel Feininger

Associated Names
Lyonel Feininger

Artist, American, 1871 - 1956

This painting displays intersecting geometric shapes and lines forming a complex pattern. The abstract composition includes angular forms and planes, suggesting familiar objects like rooftops, buildings, fields, and sky, but they are too abstracted to form any cohesive scene. Gradients and solid colors in blues, greens, reddish-browns, and grays are enclosed in squares or rectangles which fit together. The shapes appear to be on a diagonal line, starting in the bottom left corner and moving upwards towards the right. Some of the shapes on the right get darker and darker as they spiral in towards a black center.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Julia Feininger

  • Dimensions

    overall: 80.7 × 100.6 cm (31 3/4 × 39 5/8 in.)
    framed: 92.39 × 112.4 × 9.53 cm (36 3/8 × 44 1/4 × 3 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1966.3.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1871-1956]; by inheritance to his wife, Julia Feininger, New York; gift 1966 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1923

  • Loan to the Schlossmuseum, Weimar.

1937

  • 2nd Feininger Exhibition, Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland; San Francisco Museum of Art, no. 2.

1938

  • Lyonel Feininger. A Retrospective Exhibition, University Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1938, no. 1.

1944

  • Lyonel Feininger. Marsden Hartley, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1944-1945, unnumbered catalogue, repro. (travelling exhibition through 1946 to 10 other venues).

1951

  • Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1951, no. 27.

1959

  • Lyonel Feininger: Memorial Exhibition 1959-1961, San Francisco Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Cleveland Museum of Art; Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1959-1960, no. 13 (possibly in European tour of exh.).

1973

  • Lyonel Feininger, Haus der Kunst, Munich; Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1973, no. 92.

1974

  • The Blue Four and German Expressionism, Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, 1974, no. 1, repro.

1978

  • Aspects of Twentieth-Century Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978-1979, no. 16, repro.

1991

  • Lyonel Feininger: La Variante Tematica e Tecnica Nello Sviluppo del Processo Creativo, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano, Switzerland, 1991, no. XIV.7, repro.

1993

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador Pickering, U.S. Embassy residence, Moscow, Russia, 1993-1995.

1997

  • Die Blaue Vier: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee in der Neuen Welt, Kunstmuseum Bern; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 1997-1998, no. 5, repro.

1999

  • Austieg und Fall der Moderne [Rise and Fall of Modernity], Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar, Schlossmuseum, 1999, no. 197, repro.

2006

  • Lyonel Feininger - Früje Werke und Fraunde [Lyonel Feininger - Early Works and Friends], Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, 2006-2007, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2007

  • Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2007, no cat.

2009

  • Futurismo 100, Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, 2009.

  • Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshop for Modernity, The Museum of Modern Art, Long Island City, 2009-2010, no. 42, repro.

2011

  • Lyonel Feininger, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2011-2012, unnumbered catalogue, fig.108.

2017

  • Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), Fundación Juan March, Madrid, 2017, no. 194, repro.

Bibliography

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 58, repro.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 157, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 214-5, color repro. 218.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 611, no. 9471, color repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 177, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: Feininger / 1918

Wikidata ID

Q20192219

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