ANDREAS FEININGER (b. 1906, Paris, France; d. 1999, New York, NY) The photographs in Body Maps by Feininger, who is known for his dynamic black-and-white cityscapes of Manhattan and for employing experimental custom lenses, builds on the Bauhaus legacy of using fundamental geometric forms to map the natural movement of the human body. Feininger was a staff photographer for LIFE magazine (1943–62), where he completed more than 430 assignments. Solo exhibitions of his photography have been held by the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (2007); Institute für Kulturaustausch, Tübingen, BadenWürttemberg, Germany (1998); the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ (1981); Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX (1980); the International Center of Photography, New York, NY (1976); the American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY (1972 and 1957); The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY (1968); and Landesbildstelle, Hamburg, Germany, and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (both 1963). Feininger studied architecture at the Bauhaus in Germany, where his father, the painter Lyonel Feininger, taught and initially used the camera as a reference aid in creating his building designs.
–Body Maps: Works from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections in Conversation with Past Exhibiting Artists