Lyonel Feininger’s Cathedral (1919)

Lyonel Feininger, the twentieth century painter and the founding member of the Bauhaus school, is revered to be one of the most significant artists of his time. Lyonel Feininger was an equally talented printmaker, photographer and he started his journey in the realm of art with cartooning. Lyonel Feininger’s started in the early twentieth century Germany. During this time he created some of the most significant masterpieces of the contemporary times. One among his series of brilliant works is especially important and celebrated among the artist circles.  We will discuss the artwork and its nuances here. The work by Lyonel Feininger is titled, “Cathedral” and was created in 1919. The work is included in the collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lyonel Feininger’s art works created during the same time around Cethedral along with other works of Lyonel Feininger showcasing his practices and his journey can all be seen online. Explore these works and get to know more about the journey of Lyonel Feininger. If you fall for his art, buy Lyonel Feininger’s paintings online. 

“Cathedral (1919),” Woodcut - Museum of Modern Art, New York Woodcut - Museum of Modern Art, New York

The description of the artwork “Cathedral (1919)” & analysis: Lyonel Feininger’s works were equally powerful in woodcut so much so that it illustrated the manifesto of Bauhaus. He created this piece; “Cathedral” in woodcut which, in all its glory, appeared in one of the most significant historic document charting the evolution of avant-garde art, the Bauhaus manifesto. The work, in the manifesto, represented the utopian vision of the Bauhaus school depicting realizing a "Cathedral of Socialism." In the painting Lyonel Feininger deliberately uses the Gothic cathedral referencing its communal belonging into a spiritual vision as he also indicates towards the joint efforts of the artists and artisans who have made their collective vision into a reality. The “Cathedral” spoke to the collective and did have it’s unique representation in the formulation of the Bauhaus. His initiation with the painting has finally been able to bring together the efforts of arts and crafts. The school, soon turned towards the aesthetics of machines with the coming of 1920s, the founding of the school was marked by a sense of spiritual harmony between the two different practices. The very harmony is not represented simply by the church but was also integrated into the dymanics with the practice of the same aesthetics. The “Cathedral” was the figuration of a cosmic space reflecting the magnificence of light, a belief among its contributors that has been built up into the angular structure of the depiction of Cathedral. The transparencies and the structure reflect the influence of Bruno Taut's utopian glass architecture. Check out the piece by Lyonel Feininger online. If you like the paintings and are drawn to explore more, you can also thing about buying Lyonel Feininger’s paintings online.

The early Bauhaus culture was deeply inspired by the representations of the structures and sense of community that of the medieval guilds. Lyonel Feininger's individual connection to the Gothic specifically asserted this influence into the practice of the Bauhaus style. Lyonel Feininger used abstraction inn a whole new form in the artwork of cathedral which rendered the piece to be something that is undeniably modern. The artwork showed features that have inclinations toward the Cubist fracturing of forms as well as it resembles the Futurist dynamic force lines which was taken up by Lyonel Feininger represented with his own style of woodcut. The execution of the work has been purposefully crude and thus evokes pre-industrial imperfections. The work showcased a Cubo-Expressionism that is combining elements taken from the radical and revolutionary fronts of the movements of avant-garde. The work in woodcut has been created following an old fashioned and hand-rendered process which is painstakingly long. The process connects the Bauhaus orientation to that of the middle ages before thr more sophisticated processes of printmaking were developed. The work, in both its subject and style, echoed the very spirit of Bauhaus manifesto that speaks of the need for social change and the struggle to bring about a revolution by the ways of training the artists and the craftsmen to make happen a new age in art of rebuilding.

 Lyonel Feininger’s blend of the avant-garde art and the traditional influences rendered a model visually modern while it is conventional in its references of symbolism. Lyonel Feininger’s works demands our deep inspection, go through the works and if you like Lyonel Feininger’s paintings you can go ahead and buy Lyonel Feininger’s paintings online. Lyonel Feininger’s initiated philosophy of art dominated the Bauhaus ideology in the early years of modernism.