When Lyonel Feininger left Germany on 11 June 1937, after almost fifty years, and returned to his birthplace, the United States of America, the future was precarious for him and his wife Julia. He was known only to a few and sales prospects were bleak for he was regarded in the USA as a German artist. Over the summer he scratched a living teaching at Mills College in Oakland, California. Back in New York his financial straits were temporarily eased when he was asked to design murals for the New York World’s Fair (1939–40).
In spring 1938 the New York World’s Fair Commission ordered two murals from Feininger for the outside wall of the Marine Transportation Building, the exhibition hall for American shipping companies at the vast fair site in Queens. One of the two murals was to cover an area of 36.6 x 7.6 metres to the right of the striking entrance that was composed of two towering ship prows. The second mural was planned for the back of the building. In May 1938 Feininger’s final designs were accepted and the murals were completed in October of that year. The mural on the front of the building was based exactly on this watercolour. It is divided into sections showing five periods in ship travel, starting with the caravels in which Columbus sailed to America and leading on to one of the giant passenger steamers of the twentieth century. Feininger chose these subdivisions and the colours so the mural could be appreciated both from the terrace below and further away and they matched the building’s overall colour scheme. The mural on the back of the building showed the maritime signal flags. Both murals on the Marine Transportation Building not only highlight Feininger’s qualities as an artist but also his knowledgeable fascination with ships that can be traced back to his childhood.

Text from the Lyonel Feininger Project LLC c/o Achim Moeller, New York – Berlin

Literature: Ingrid Mössinger, Kerstin Drechsler (ed.): Lyonel Feininger. Sammlung Loebermann. Zeichnung. Aquarell. Druckgrafik. exh. cat. Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. Prestel Verlag Munich / Berlin / London / New York 2006.