Alexej Jawlensky

description

A Russian painter, who worked in Germany and Switzerland.

Alexej was the fifth of eight children born into the family of a colonel in the Russian army. In the 1980s, he served as an officer in the imperial army. At the same time, he was a student of Ilya Repin, working in his workshop at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.

He was a founding member of the association of Munich Expressionist artists “New Art Society” (Neue Künster Vereinigung), the group “Blue Horseman” (“Der Blaue Reiter”); starting in 1925, he was a member of the Blue Four (“Die Blauen Vier”) – an association that actively collaborated with German and American art galleries and art dealers.

Key ideas:

– As the most consistent of the Russian-German Expressionist artists, Alexej Jawlensky developed and embodied the ideas of coloristic Symbolism, achieving expressiveness in color-based decisions and a deep emotionality in the structure of his paintings. He preserved this style into the later period, when the artist introduced the methods and techniques of Abstract art into his works.

– The artist explained his pre-war work: “I painted landscapes and large figures in strong, bright colors, not at all naturalistic, not objective. I used a large amount of red, blue, orange, cadmium yellow, green. Forms were very much outlined – they came with tremendous force from inner ecstasy.”

– After a period of fascination with landscape painting, Jawlensky returned to experiments with the human form, conceiving and achieving, perhaps, his most famous series of paintings with the general name “Mystical (Abstract) Heads”, as well as his “Faces of the Savior” series (1918-1920), which, according to art historians, are very reminiscent of traditional Russian Orthodox icons, familiar to the author from his childhood.

– The artist himself said: “Every artist works within the framework of tradition. I am native to Russia. My Russian soul has always been close to Russian icons, to Byzantine art, to mosaics in Ravenna and Venice, to Romanesque art. All these works produce a religious vibration in my soul, because I sense a deep spiritual language in them.”

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1864

1882

1896 - 1897

1902 - 1908

1909 - 1911

1911 - 1913

1914 - 1921

1924

1937 - 1938

1941

The birth of the artist

Alexej Jawlensky was born on the 25th of March in 1864 in Torzhok, Tver Province, Russian Empire.

Attended the All-Russian Industrial Art Exhibition

Attended the All-Russian Industrial Art Exhibition. There, for the first time, he saw pictures that struck him so deeply that he considered this experience a turning point in his life. He started going to the Tretyakov Gallery every weekend, where he felt “as if in a temple”.

Moved to Munich

Together with I. Grabar, D. Kardovsky, and artist and common-law wife M. Verevkina, he moved to Munich; together with W. Kandinsky, he entered the art studio-workshop of A. Azhbe. Visited Venice with a group of artists. He painted in a style close to Realism.

Jawlensky became interested in the art of French painters

The artist and E. Neznakomova, the maid of Verevkina and the future artist, had a son, Andrey. Jawlensky became interested in the art of French painters and worked in the style of Van Gogh for a few years (he bought his painting “The house of Father Pilon”). 10 paintings titled “Etudes. Brittany” were exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1905. At the Petersburg exhibition, organized by Dyagilev in 1906, 9 paintings by the artist were shown. He spent the summer of 1908 in the village of Murnau, creating a number of landscapes.

For the next few years, he developed his own style

For the next few years, he developed his own style. Together with like-minded people W. Kandinsky, M. Verevkina, A. Erbsloh, G. Munter and A. Kubin, he founded the “New Munich Art Association”, which held two exhibitions with the invitation of French avant-garde artists. 6 paintings were presented twice at the Salon of V. Izdebsky in Odessa and in Kiev (1909-1910).

His first solo exhibition was held in Barmen

His first solo exhibition was held in Barmen (Hall of Fame); he participated in the creation of the “Blue Horseman”, the exhibition of works by members of that group (gallery “Der Sturm”, Berlin), and the publication of an almanac of the same name. With M. Verevkin, he visited Paris, meeting with A. Matisse. In the Budapest exhibition of futurists and expressionists, 41 of his paintings were exhibited.

With the beginning of the war, he moved to Switzerland

With the beginning of the war, he moved to Switzerland, starting the cycle “Variations” – works with landscape themes. In 1917, he helped A. Sakharov with the his ballet in Lugano. In 1920, he exhibited several paintings in Geneva and at the Venice Biennale (with his son Andrey). Met with Alexander Archipenko. Having broken up with M. Verevkina, he moved to Wiesbaden and married E. Neznakomova. He struck an acquaintance with collector and patron of the arts Heinrich Kirchhoff, who supported the artist financially.

The Blue Four

Together with Kandinsky, Klee, Schneer and Feininger, he founded the Blue Four contract association, which held exhibitions in Germany and promoted the work of its members in the United States.

"Degenerate Art"

Works of the artist were among the 650 works confiscated by the Nazis from 32 museums in Germany at the “Degenerate Art” exhibition. It took place at the gallery of Hofgarten Park, and then in another 12 cities, gathering 3 million visitors before April of 1941. 72 works by Jawlensky were confiscated and destroyed. Constantly tormented by arthritis in 1938, the artist stopped painting.