Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)
(Smoke-script), 1946
Ink and watercolor on paper
12 3/4 x 18 7/8 in. (32.4 x 47.9 cm)
Signed lower left: Feininger
Dated lower right: 14. VII. 46.
Inscribed bottom left: X. L.F.
Titled bottom right: Smoke Script
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)
(Smoke-script), 1946
Ink and watercolor on paper
12 3/4 x 18 7/8 in. (32.4 x 47.9 cm)
Signed lower left: Feininger
Dated lower right: 14. VII. 46.
Inscribed bottom left: X. L.F.
Titled bottom right: Smoke Script
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)
Quimper, 1931
Watercolor and ink on paper
18 5/8 x 11 7/8 in. (47.3 x 30.2 cm)
Signed lower left: Feininger
Titled lower center: Quimper
Dated lower right: 3 9 31
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)
Sky Script, 1946
Watercolor and ink on paper
12 1/2 x 18 7/8 in. (31.8 x 47.9 cm)
Signed lower left: Feininger
Dated lower right: 20. VIII. ‘46.
Titled lower center: Sky Script
Mark Tobey (1890-1976)
Untitled, 1965
Monotype on rice paper heightened with tempera
39 1/8 x 20 in. (99.4 x 50.8 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: Tobey 65 Bâle
Mark Tobey (1890-1976)
Above the Earth IV, 1956
Gouache on paper
11 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. (29.8 x 45.1 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: Tobey 56
Mark Tobey (1890-1976)
Ancient Images, 1954
Tempera on paper
14 1/8h x 11 3/4w in
35.88h x 29.84w cm
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)
Gaberndorf, 1918
Pen, ink, and watercolor on paper
9 1/3 x 12 1/8 in. (23.7 x 30.8 cm)
Signed lower left: X L.F. Feininger
Dated lower right: Mittwoch d. 9. Jan, 1918
Titled lower center: Gaberndorf
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)
(Village), 1952
Watercolor and ink on paper
7 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. (19.1 x 34.9 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: Feininger June, 1952
Inscribed verso: In old-time Remembrance, to Alli, from his old “Papilep” L.F., Aug. 26th 1952
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956)
Dorf, 1923
Watercolor and ink on paper
11 x 15 in. (27.9 x 38.1 cm)
Signed lower left: Feininger
Titled lower center: Dorf
Dated lower right: 24 Sept 1923
Mark Tobey (1890-1976)
Double Horizon, 1945
Tempera on board
6 3/4 x 10 5/8 in. (17.1 x 27 cm)
Mark Tobey (1890-1976)
Space Script (Dark and Light), 1959
Tempera on paper laid down on Japan paper
5 5/8 x 4 3/4 in. (14.3 x 12.1 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: Tobey 59
Mark Tobey (1890-1976)
Untitled (Sumi), 1957
Sumi on paper
20 3/4 x 29 in. (52.7 x 73.7 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: Tobey '57
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) met Mark Tobey (1890-1976) in 1944 at the Willard Gallery in New York, and the two artists kept up a voluminous correspondence (Years of Friendship, 1944-1956, ed. Achim Moeller, Hatje Cantz, 2006) until Feininger's death in 1956. Although Tobey's calligraphic abstractions were worlds away from the ethereal, linear landscapes of Feininger's later years, the two found a conceptual sympathy in their work, which only deepened with their friendship. "His highly sensitive technique captures something of the fleeting values of our life," Feininger wrote for a Portland Museum of Art exhibition catalogue of Tobey's work in 1945, "it is an expression adequate for times like ours, where old-accustomed stability has given way to changed concepts of space, where boundaries are almost nonexistent, and in which the intricacies of existence overlay the fundamentals of life, and man as never before has to struggle for a way out." Tobey returned the compliment in 1954 in an essay for a Feininger exhibition catalogue at the Curt Valentin Gallery, "He does not abstract for abstraction's sake. He draws the essence from the real, reshapes and relates in color, form and line—and gives us his world wherein, if we have the willing mind, and take the time, we are rewarded by becoming more aware, and more sensitive within ourselves."