Modern Age
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941)
Russian-German Early Abstraction painter.
Alexej von Jawlensky was born in Torzhok, Russia, into an aristocratic military family. After serving as an army officer, he began studying painting in his late twenties at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where he met Marianne von Werefkin, who became his lifelong companion and artistic partner. In 1896, he moved to Munich, immersing himself in the city's vibrant avant-garde scene and studying under Anton Ažbe alongside Wassily Kandinsky. His early work showed the influence of Russian icon painting and Post-Impressionist color, but his encounter with Fauvism in Paris around 1905 transformed his palette into bold, non-naturalistic hues.
From 1908 to 1914, Jawlensky worked closely with Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, and Werefkin in Murnau, Bavaria, where he developed his mature expressionist style characterized by intense color contrasts and simplified forms. He was a founding member of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Artists' Association Munich) in 1909, though he did not join Der Blaue Reiter when it split off in 1911. During World War I, as a Russian national, he was forced to leave Germany and spent years in Switzerland, where his work turned increasingly inward. After settling permanently in Wiesbaden in 1921, he embarked on his most profound series: the Mystical Heads (1917–1920s), Abstract Heads (1918–1934), and finally the Meditations (1934–1937), in which the human face was distilled into a spiritual icon reduced to essential vertical and horizontal elements.
Jawlensky's late work, created despite crippling arthritis that eventually left him unable to paint after 1937, represents one of modernism's most sustained meditations on the human countenance as a vehicle for spiritual expression. He saw the face as a gateway to the divine, writing that "art is longing for God." His serial reduction of facial features into abstract signs—eyes, nose, mouth as crosses and curves—bridged Eastern Orthodox icon tradition with Western abstraction, influencing subsequent generations of artists interested in the spiritual dimensions of form and color.
The words the record keeps using: mystical, meditative, intense, iconic, solemn, luminous, austere, devotional.
At a glance
- Lived 1864–1941
- Origin Russian-German
- Worked in Moscow, Munich, Basel
- Era Modern Age
- Movements Early Abstraction, Der Blaue Reiter
- Mediums Oil on panel, Oil on canvas
- Techniques Impasto, Color-form abstraction, Diagrammatic painting, Geometric abstraction
Works in the archive
- Landscape - Murnau, 1909 (Unknown)
A radiant landscape from Jawlensky's crucial Murnau summer working alongside Kandinsky and Münter in the Bavarian Alps. The village and surrounding mountains are transformed into glowing planes of pure color that… - Self-Portrait, 1912 (Unknown)
A powerful self-examination from the height of Jawlensky's Murnau period, showing the artist's penetrating gaze and characteristic intense coloration. The work demonstrates his mature expressionist approach to… - Still Life, 1915 (Basel)
A vibrant still life from Jawlensky's Swiss period, demonstrating that even in the domestic genre he maintained his expressionist intensity. Objects are rendered in bold color planes with heavy outlines, transforming… - Mystical Head, 1917 (Unknown)
One of the early Mystical Heads created during Jawlensky's Swiss exile, marking his turn toward icon-like spiritual portraiture. The face is no longer an individual but an archetype, a meditation on the universal human… - Frauenkopf, Femina, 1922 (Unknown)
From the Abstract Heads series, one of hundreds of variations exploring the geometric essence of the human face. Here the reduction is nearly complete: nose, eyes, and mouth resolve into a cruciform pattern of vertical… - Meditation, 1936 (Unknown)
One of the late Meditations, created as arthritis increasingly limited Jawlensky's hand movement. The face has been distilled to pure vertical and horizontal elements on a small, intimate scale. Individual personality…
What was said
Art is longing for God, and through my heads I sought to express the divine face that dwells in every human being.
The human face is the greatest and most wonderful creation. For me it is the symbol of all existence, and through endless variation I try to approach its spiritual essence.
I want my paintings to be like hymns—to inspire prayer and contemplation, to lift the viewer toward the eternal.
Lineage
Passed on to Paul Klee
What would Alexej make of your idea?
The Artiquity Studio makes a new picture in this hand's manner from a few words or a photograph — grounded in the technique, palette and subjects recorded above, and always credited "after Alexej von Jawlensky", never passed off as a found work. Open the Studio with Alexej · Keep a life moment the way Alexej would · Pictures made after Alexej