Richard Lindner • American (1901-1978)

Man - Front View (76.113) / Man - Back View (76.115) • Print/Serigraph on Paper 39-1/4" x 27"

Can you “picture yourself in a boat on the river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies?” Then thank the man who inspired Heinz Edelmann’s Yellow Submarine animation, and became one of John Lennon’s favorite artists. Richard Lindner magically mixed bright colors with mechanically-shaped people from the fringes of society. He bridged American and European art in much the same way as the British Invasion brought the future of Rock ‘N Roll across the ocean.

From odd beginnings come interesting lifetimes. Richard Lindner grew up roaming the streets of Nuremburg, Germany when the city was better known for mechanical toy factories than Nazi trials. He moved easily from life as a concert pianist to art director for a publisher of Nazi tracts. Yes, he met Adolph Hitler while illustrating his propaganda books. However, by 1933 Nazi Germany was not a good place for a young man with a Jewish father. Fleeing to Paris, Lindner was imprisoned by the French, suspicious of his previous affiliations. To prove his loyalty he fought for both the French Resistance and the British Army, leaving for America just as we joined the festivities.

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So Lindner took his place among the huddled masses entering the new world through the old turnstiles at Ellis Island. New York City became home where he painted “the raucous nature of the glitzy underground world” of pimps, gangsters and whores in his distinctive “Picasso-Meets-Berlin-Cabaret” style. “In New York everybody’s is an entertainer. The city is an enormous stage twenty-four hours a day.” He set out to capture the show as a circus of mechanized toy people pulled apart and painted in a style strongly influence by Cubism.

Much of Lindner’s art has a surreal, poster quality reflecting his years as an illustrator for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Fortune. By 1971, while spending summers in Paris with a much younger second wife, Lindner painted two more robotic images of uniformed men from society’s fringes. Both stood as if targets at an arcade shooting gallery with the word SHOOT emblazoned across their bodies. Was Lindner making a statement drawn from his German youth where people on the fringe were, indeed, targets. Did he see a parallel with his adopted home in America? Fortunately, Lindner’s two men found a home at the Canton Museum of Art. Come see for yourself.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Gift of Ted Luntz, 76.113 and 76.115

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“I know I’ve seen a picture of this guy somewhere before. Now I remember. He was on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

2.
“He once worked as an art director for a German publisher of Nazi propaganda. Not a good career choice for a guy with a Jewish father.”

3.
“He often painted women wearing corsets because his mother owned a custom-fit corset business. Sigmund Freud would have had a field day.”

4.
“His people often looked like mechanical toys, and his boyhood home of Nuremburg was famous for producing these kind of toys. There are no coincidences.”

Lindner Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1901

Born in Hamburg Germany. His mother was an American who owned a custom-fit corset shop. His father was German and Jewish.

1905

The family moved to Nuremburg, Germany, a city known for it’s many factories producing mechanical toys. It is hard to look at a Lindner painting and not think of these toys. While growing up in Nuremburg, he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School).

1924-27

While living in Munich, he made a living as a concert pianist while studying art at the Kunstakademie (Academy of Fine Arts). He moved to Berlin in 1927.

1928

Moved back to Munich, where he remained until 1933. There he became an art director for a publishing firm associated with the Nazi party then rising to power in Germany.

1933

Things were getting a bit hot in Germany for anyone with Jewish blood, so he fled to Paris where he was promptly jailed due to suspicion about his Nazis affiliations. To prove his loyalty, he fought for both the French and British armies as World War II broke out in Europe.

1941

Moved to the United States where he settled in New York. He felt himself more a New Yorker than an American. He loved the grittiness of the city and the way “… everybody is an entertainer. The city is an enormous stage, twenty-four hours a day.” He made a living illustrating books and magazines, and formed a strong bond with fellow German immigrants, Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich and Saul Steinberg.

1948

Became an American citizen. By this time he had become part of the boiling art scene in New York City and formed friendships with many of the leading artists of the day. He was especially drawn to the Abstract Expressionists, like Jackson Pollock, who were forging the first uniquely American art movement.

1952

Became a part-time teacher at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. This was also the year he started seriously painting non-commercial work.

1954

Staged his first one-man exhibit at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York City.

1957

Received the William and Norma Copley Foundation Award. This Foundation was closely aligned with Dadaist, Marcel Duchamp and gave grants to artists doing groundbreaking work.

1965

Became Guest Professor at the Hochschule fur bildende Kunste in Hamburg, Germany, where he was born.

1966

His painting, Ice, was including in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s exhibition: “Summer of Love: Art of the Psydelic Era.”

1967

Named a full professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Fernand Leger had also taught at Yale during World War II. Leger’s mechanical shapes had an obvious influence on Lindner. Appeared in the montage of 57 notable people on the cover of The Beatles landmark record, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

1978

He died and was buried at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, just north of his beloved New York City.