Richard Lindner

How it All Began, Portrait Lithograph by Richard Lindner

1969

Richard Lindner (1901 – 1978) was a German-American painter. Lindner's mother was owner of a custom-fitting corset business and Richard Lindner grew up and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School since 1940 Academy of Fine Arts). From 1924 to 1927 he lived in Munich and studied there from 1925 at the Kunstakademie. In 1927 Lindner moved to Berlin and stayed there until 1928, when he returned to Munich to become art director of a publishing firm. He remained in Munich until 1933, when he was forced to flee to Paris. Once in Paris, Lindner became politically engaged, sought contact with French artists and earned his living as a commercial artist. He was interned when World War II broke out in 1939 and later served in the French Army. In 1941, Lindner moved to the United States and worked in New York City as an illustrator of books and magazines. There he made contact with New York artists and German emigrants such as Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich, and Saul Steinberg. In 1948, Lindner became an American citizen. Lindner taught at a number of institutions including the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, Hochschule fur bildende Kunste in Hamburg and Yale University School of Art and Architecture. His paintings often used the sexual symbolism of advertising and investigated definitions of gender roles in the media.