US born Feininger moved to Germany at the age of 16, initially to study music. He soon re-directed his interest toward visual arts. He started his career as a caricaturist and illustrator. Moving to painting, he took part in the Berliner Sezession and joined artistic groups of the German Expressionism, such as die Brücke, November Group and Der Blau Reiter. In 1924 with Kandinsky, Klee, Jawlensky he founded Die Blaue Vier (The blue four). In 1919 he was appointed by Gropius to teach graphic art and printmaking: here he created his Kathedrale, woodcut cover design for the Bauhaus manifesto. In 1937 he moved to New York and later to North Carolina, at the Black Mountain College, where he reunited with Gropius.