Accession Number
1948/1.59

Title
Village Church

Artist(s)
Lyonel Feininger

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1931

Medium & Support
woodcut on Japanese paper

Dimensions
7 9/16 in x 8 15/16 in (19.21 cm x 22.7 cm)

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Label copy
Although of American birth, Lyonel Feininger lived and worked abroad for most of his career. Arriving in Paris in 1911, the artist found the town transfixed by the idea of Cubism. Feininger saw in Cubism a tool, a means to an end. In contrast to the French Cubists who sought to explore the material world around them, Feininger wrote that his Cubism was "visionary, not physical."Feininger found in the bold simplicity of the woodcut medium the perfect means of expression for his own version of Cubism. Here he uses Cubist faceting and fragmentation to break up the structure of a medieval German church, dematerializing the building and endowing it with visionary and spiritual qualities.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
Expressionism
modern and contemporary art