Mystical head: Exotic head

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Mystical head: Exotic head is the title of a painting by the German-Russian artist Alexej Jawlensky , which he painted in 1917. In 1954 it was acquired by the then museum director Clemens Weiler for the Wiesbaden Museum . It bears the inventory number M 688.

Technology and image carriers

The picture “Mystical Head: Exotic Head” is an oil painting on linen-structured painting paper in portrait format, 53.5 × 38.4 cm. It is signed lower left in the picture 'A. Jawlensky ”and dated“ 17 ”, it is monogrammed“ AJ ”lower right. “On the reverse, colored still life with a window view (variation motif), underneath lower center: stamp of the artists' magazine Zurich. […] The still life recognizable on the back (illustration on p. 86) is laid out in landscape format. Trees and bushes as well as a garden gate appear at the top right, as in a window view. B. appears in 'Großer Weg - Abend'. ”The picture is listed in Weiler's“ Catalog of Paintings ”from 1959, in the Jawlensky Archive's 1991“ Catalog Raisonné ”and in 1997 in the inventory catalog of the Wiesbaden Museum.

In Zurich, Jawlensky painted his "mystical heads"

In 1917 Jawlensky moved with Werefkin , their cook Helene and son Andreas von Saint-Prex to Zurich . Regarding his artistic work, he reports in his memoirs: “In Zurich I painted my so-called 'mystical heads'.” Weiler interpreted: “At that time, this city was the focus of emigrants from all over the world. Jawlensky was delighted to be able to see major exhibitions again, especially those by Renoir and Cézanne . Sacharoff and his wife, who had meanwhile also moved to Zurich, were among his circle of friends. The Munich days seemed to have come again. New acquaintances were made with Wilhelm Lehmbruck , Marie Laurencin and Paul Cassirer . The young American dancer Anika Jan often served as a model. The most important acquaintance for Jawlensky, however, was with the composer Ferruccio Busoni , whose Turandot he had seen in Munich, a performance that had inspired him to one of his strongest pictures of 1912. "

Strong colors, strong contours

“Although he had already painted a few girls' heads before, Jawlensky took up this subject again with increased interest during the time in Zurich, which was rich in encounters and contacts. The proximity to the heads of the prewar period is evident in both the strong colors and the strong contours, which are missing in the later works. The eye-catching hairband also gives the head an individual touch. "

Jawlensky flourished again in Zurich

“In the urban environment with its many refugees and its diverse cultural life, Jawlensky flourished again and made several amours. Under these conditions his artistic creativity blossomed. His 'mystical heads' are usually female heads. Sometimes they are characterized by a strong color, like the portrait ' Galka '. Often they are equipped with strong contouring, such as. B. the 'exotic head'. In terms of colors, he treated 'oil like watercolor' and thus fell back on the 'variations' of previous years.

Step by step, Jawlensky approached an art of which Werefkin claimed as early as 1900: 'The art of the future is that of emotional art. Up to our day, pure art was that of the naive or masterfully captured impression. The art of the future is that of emotion. '”Jawlensky worked hard on the task of illustrating his emotional world with shapes and colors. The human face now served him as a pretext to depict "inner secrecy". Jawlensky looked for a suitable motif for this new discovery and chose the human face familiar to him from Russian icon painting . Thus the “mystical heads” must be seen as an enhancement of what Jawlensky had already achieved with his “Variations”.

literature

  • Clemens Weiler : Alexej Jawlensky. Cologne 1959
  • Clemens Weiler: Alexej Jawlensky, heads-faces-meditations. Hanau 1970
  • Ingrid Koszinowski: Alexej von Jawlensky, paintings and graphic works from the collection of the Wiesbaden Museum. 1997
  • Bernd Fäthke : Jawlensky and his companions in a new light. Munich 2004

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "According to Ms. H. v. Jawlensky 'Swiss Girls' ”, index card, Museum Wiesbaden.
  2. ^ Ingrid Koszinowski: Alexej von Jawlensky, paintings and graphic works from the collection of the Museum Wiesbaden 1997, p. 37.
  3. ↑ Clemens Weiler: Alexej Jawlensky. Cologne 1959, p. 242 no.211.
  4. ^ Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, Angelica Jawlensky (eds.): Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné of the oil-paintings. , Vol. 1, Munich 1991, p. 196 No. 878.
  5. ^ Ingrid Koszinowski: Alexej von Jawlensky, paintings and graphic works from the collection of the Museum Wiesbaden 1997, p. 37 No. 24.
  6. ↑ Bernd Fäthke: Marianne Werefkin. Munich 2001, p. 7, doc. 7.
  7. ↑ Alexej Jawlensky: Memoirs . In: Clemens Weiler (Ed.): Alexej Jawlensky, Heads-Face-Meditations , Hanau 1970, p. 118.
  8. ↑ Clemens Weiler: Alexej Jawlensky. Cologne 1959, p. 100.
  9. ^ Ingrid Koszinowski: Alexej von Jawlensky, paintings and graphic works from the collection of the Wiesbaden Museum. 1997, p. 37 f.
  10. ↑ Curt Riess: History of the strangest village in the world: Ascona. In: Kölner-Stadt-Anzeiger, July 6, 1966.
  11. ↑ Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, Angelica Jawlensky (eds.): Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalog Raisonné of the oil-paintings , Vol. 2. Munich 1992, p. 196 No. 878.
  12. ↑ Alexej Jawlensky, letter to Cuno Amiet, November 19, 1914, see: Bernd Fäthke: Jawlensky and his companions in a new light. Munich 2004, p. 173, note 1636.
  13. ↑ Bernd Fäthke: Marianne Werefkin. Munich 2001, p. 164.
  14. ↑ Clemens Weiler: Alexej Jawlensky. Cologne 1959, p. 137.
  15. ↑ As early as the 1920s, these works were compared with "old Russian icons". See: LZ, Russia, The new works Alex. v. Jawlenskys. In: Der Ararat No. 8, July 1920, p. 73.
  16. ↑ Bernd Fäthke: Jawlensky and his companions in a new light. Munich 2004, p. 180.