The Newspaper Readers 1909

Lyonel Feininger’s painting, *The Newspaper Readers*, now in a private collection, is a peach-toned world populated by angular figures grasping their news in a stylized landscape. I imagine Feininger layering color upon color, scraping back, building up, and probably stepping back often, trying to find some feeling, some inner resonance to match the outer world. This piece feels like a cousin to Kandinsky’s work. There’s a shared interest in abstracting form to convey something beyond the surface. Look at the figure in the dark green coat, he’s like a dark shard, a shadow passing through this strange town. What’s he thinking? What’s in the news? There's something brittle about these folks, a kind of anxious energy, all caught within the same painted plane. I feel you, brother! Feininger’s work reminds us that artists are in constant conversation, riffing off each other, pushing and pulling at the boundaries of what painting can be.