Painting techniques of Feininger and Kandinsky

The topic of this course has tempted me already in 2013, but now in November 2014 I finally had the opportunity to participate. This was one of my elective seminars for the art study program at the Leonardo Kunstakademie. It was taught by Prof. Hannes Baier.

Lyonel Feininger (1871 – 1956) was a German-American painter and caricaturist.

Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944) was a Russian painter who had also lived for long periods in Germany and France.

Both artists belong to the art movement of Expressionism and were part of those who first experimented with informal and abstract paintings. Both were founding members of the art association “The Blue Four“.

Originally Kandinsky was credited for creating the first ever informal (purely abstract) painting. Later, however, it was discovered that he had predated it (from 1913 to 1910).

As usual, we received a thorough introduction to these two artists and their painting techniques, before trying to apply these new insights in our own paintings. I had been quite taken by Kandinsky for a long time, and so it came as a surprise to realize that I am more leaning toward Feininger’s style.

In addition, during this seminar, I discovered the fairly unknown painting technique with cold wax ointment. All three paintings, that I produced during this seminar, follow the slightly cubistic style of Feininger and are done with cold wax.