Harvard Art Museums announce traveling exhibitions of works by Lyonel Feininger

The Harvard Art Museums present two traveling exhibitions devoted to underexplored aspects of the work of Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956), one of the major figures of European modernism. Lyonel Feininger: Drawings and Watercolors from the William S. Lieberman Bequest to the Busch-Reisinger Museum highlights an important recent acquisition of a stunning group of drawings and watercolors from the collection of the legendary curator. Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939, assembled primarily from Harvard University’s Houghton Library, is the first to explore the artist’s little-known photographic work. Drawing on vast but largely untapped resources and new research, the two exhibitions and their accompanying catalogues examine the aesthetic and intellectual dimensions of Feininger’s achievements within each of these distinct media. Many of the works included have never before been exhibited or published and thus allow for a fresh assessment of this otherwise well-known figure.

Feininger at Harvard: Drawings, Watercolors, and Photographs, which encompasses both exhibitions, will be presented in Germany at the Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin from Feb. 25 to May 15, 2011, and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich from June 2 to July 17, 2011. Lyonel Feininger: Photographs, 1928–1939 then travels to the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, where it will be on view from Oct. 25, 2011 to March 11, 2012. In Los Angeles it will be complemented by a related installation of photographs by Bauhaus masters and students from the Getty’s collection. The final venue for the photography exhibition will be the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, from March 30 to June 2, 2012, where it will be accompanied by a selection of works from the drawings and watercolors exhibition.