Alexej von Jawlensky Lot n° 13

Alexei von Jawlensky Meditation. A roar came along 1935 Oil on paper, mounted on cardboard. 19 x 12.4 cm. Framed under glass. Bottom left monogrammed in red 'A.J.', right dated in red '35'. Inscribed on the reverse by Lisa Kümmel in black ink "A. Jawlensky/ VII 1935/ N. 66" and probably inscribed by Clemens Weiler in blue ballpoint pen "Ein Brausen kam daher". Inscribed on the frame board by Andreas Jawlensky in black ink "A. Jawlensky/ Kleine Meditation Nr 66/VII 1935/ "Ein Brausen kam einher"/ 19,1 x 12,4 cm/ oil on painting paper/ u.l.m.u.r.d." - In perfect fresh color condition. M. Jawlensky/Pieroni-Jawlensky/A. Jawlensky Bianconi vol. III, no. 1720 with full-page color ill. p. 167 We thank Angelica Jawlensky Bianconi, Muralto, for kind supplementary information. Provenance Estate of the artist; Andreas Jawlensky, Locarno; private property Baden-Württemberg (acquired by the previous owner in 1970); private collection Baden-Württemberg The signed and dated 1935 painting "Meditation. Ein Brausen kam einher" belongs to the last significant group of Jawlensky's works. With the so-called "Meditations" he concluded a development of his work, which had begun with the large color-intensive heads in the years before the First World War, and which, via the "Mystical" and "Abstract Heads" of the twenties, underwent a progressive reduction in color and composition. Using dark colors and a few black lines, he reduced the faces to the bare essentials. In the present work, the nose is a broad diagonal line, the eyes and mouth are horizontal bars running in opposite directions, and the spaces in between are areas sparsely filled in with color. The abstracted faces are detached from any individualization: "The last period of my work has quite small formats," Jawlensky writes, "but the pictures are even deeper and more spiritual, spoken only with color. Since I felt that I would not be able to work in the future as a result of my illness, I worked like a man possessed these my little meditations." (quoted from: Life Memoirs, in: Alexej von Jawlensky. Travels, Friends, Transformations, ed. by Tayfun Belgin, exh. Cat. Dortmund 1998, p. 119.) These compositions, which varied only slightly over the years, are often associated with the Russian Orthodox icons. It is certain that they represent Jawlensky's artistic search for an image of the divine and are the quintessence of his work.