Andreas Feininger’s ~ New York ~ at the Saint Louis Art Museum

Tuesday, 08 May 2007 07:32

Saint Louis, MO - The Saint Louis Art Museum announces the May 25 opening of Andreas Feininger’s New York , an exhibition of eight large black and white prints that form a compelling portrait of the city and its environs in the late 1940s.  Former LIFE Magazine Photographer’s Work on View through August 19.  Feininger was one of the leading staff photographers of LIFE magazine from 1943 to 1962 when photojournalism was at its creative peak.  Feininger’s vision of New York—full of space, light and energy—captured the prosperity and sense of optimism that characterized the postwar period.

Many of the photographs in the exhibition focus on the iconic features of the city including the Brooklyn Bridge, the ultra-modern Rockefeller Center and the bustle of Fifth Avenue.  Feininger often used a telephoto lens to compress buildings, automobiles and people into dense, vibrant images.

Andreas Feininger (American, born France, 1906–1999) was the son of the distinguished painter Lyonel Feininger. In the mid-1920s, he studied at the Bauhaus, the progressive German art school where his father taught.  After graduating, he used a 35mm Leica camera to record his observations and responses to the European cities of Paris, Hamburg and Stockholm.  Turmoil in Europe spurred him to move to the United States in 1937, when he began his association with Life and his fascination with New York City.

The exhibition showcases recent gifts from the artist and his family.  These generous gifts have made works by Feininger one of the largest collections by a single photographer in the Museum’s holdings. Curated by Eric Lutz, assistant curator of prints, drawings, and photographs.

The Saint Louis Art Museum is one of the nation’s leading comprehensive art museums with collections that include works of art of exceptional quality from virtually every culture and time period. Areas of notable depth include Oceanic art, pre-Columbian art, ancient Chinese bronzes, and European and American art of the late 19^th and 20^th centuries, with particular strengths in 20^th-century German art.  The Art Museum offers a full range of exhibitions and educational programming generated independently and in collaboration with local, national, and international partners.  For more information about the Saint Louis Art Museum, call 314.721.0072 or visit www.slam.org