Alexej Jawlensky - vendere e comprare opere
25 March 1864, Toržok (Russia) – 15 March 1941, Wiesbaden (Germany)
Intense colours, dynamic brushstrokes, expressive two-dimensional compositions, these are the elements that characterise the work of the Russian-German painter Alexej von Jawlensky. He is a central figure of German Expressionism.
Born in the Tver Governorate of the Russian Empire in 1864, he only turned to art in 1889. He initially studied in St. Petersburg, where he met his partner, the artist Marianne von Werefkin. Together they moved to Munich in 1896. Their living room in Giselastraße became a meeting point for progressive artists, especially from Russia and Eastern Europe.
Jawlensky focused on works of the French avant-garde, including the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse, in whose studio he worked in 1907. In Murnau, the cradle of German Expressionism, he first worked with Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter. In 1909, he co-founded the New Artists’ Association in Munich, before joining the “Blauer Reiter” group in 1912.
Already in Jawlensky’s early work, the colouring took on an intrinsic value, even taking precedence over the representational function. He intensively explored the effects of colour, surface and pictoral space.
After the outbreak of the war, he emigrated to Switzerland with Werefkin. In 1914, he founded the exhibition group “Die Blauen Vier”, together with Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Lyonel Feiniger. Jawlensky worked on a few themes in series over a period of years. The increasingly abstract landscapes were followed by the work groups “Mystischen Köpfe” and “Heiligengesichter”. In 1921, Jawlensky and Werefkin split, whereupon he moved to Wiesbaden. There, until his death, he devoted himself primarily to the depiction of the human face, which became iconic in his “Mediationen” series.
In 1937, 65 of his works were confiscated and defamed as “degenerate” by the National Socialists. He died in 1941 after years following heavy arthritis with progressive paralysis, which made working impossible for him.