[Xanti Schawinsky with the New Saxophone]
Feininger made this photograph of a musician when he was a student at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, where his father, the well-known painter Lyonel, taught. The saxophonist, Xanti Schawinsky, was a fellow student at the Bauhaus who played in the school’s jazz band along with Feininger. In Feininger’s photograph, the sax assumes even greater prominence than Schawinsky, as it cuts boldly into and across the composition. Demonstrating the artist’s talent for experimentation and improvisation, the photograph evokes the feelings of newness, nonconformity, and self-expression that drew scores of listeners, especially young people, to jazz.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Xanti Schawinsky with the New Saxophone]
- Artist: T. Lux Feininger (American (born Germany), Berlin 1910–2011 Cambridge, Massachusetts)
- Date: ca. 1928
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.3 cm. (4 3/8 x 3 1/4 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1989
- Object Number: 1989.1128
- Rights and Reproduction: © T. Lux Feininger
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.