The Newspaper Readers 1909

Lyonel Feininger’s *The Newspaper Readers* is an oil on canvas where the artist seems to be searching for a harmonious visual language. The colors are slightly muted; and these strange figures, caught in mid stride, have this abstracted, almost cartoonish quality. Looking closer, you can see how the brushstrokes create a kind of fractured surface, which reminds me of broken glass or the facets of a crystal. The layers of paint aren’t trying to hide their application. There, on the wall to the right of the canvas, the color is built up, almost like a relief. These tactile qualities give the painting a life of its own. Feininger reminds me of Marsden Hartley, another artist who blended abstraction with figuration. Both of these artists were working in a period of great change, and their art reflects a search for meaning and new ways of seeing. Like them, I am interested in the places where representation and abstraction meet.