THE PROPERTY OF AN AMERICAN COLLECTOR
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941)

Abstrakter Kopf: Abend

Details
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941)
Abstrakter Kopf: Abend
signed with initials 'A. J.' (lower left), dated '31' (lower right), signed and dated again and titled '1931 N.79' (on the reverse), also inscribed by Galka Scheyer 'Poetry of Evening. Made in Germany.' (on the reverse)
oil on cardboard
17 x 13in. (43.2 x 33cm.)
Painted in 1931
Provenance
The Artist's Studio.
Galka Scheyer, Hollywood, 1933.
Milton Wichner, Los Angeles.
Literature
The Artist's Cahier Noir, p. 20 (as 'Poesie des Abends').
M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky and A. Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, vol. II, 1914-1933, London, 1992, no. 1373 (illustrated p. 464).
Exhibited
Los Angeles, Los Angeles Museum, The Blue Four, October 1933, probably no. 72.

Lot Essay

"Your letter gave me a lot of pleasure", Jawlensky wrote to his friend and dealer Galka Scheyer in February 1931, "...dear Galka, help me and if you can sell some of my work. I still have some very fine heads in Wiesbaden, and I'll send you some of them. I recently re-read your earlier letters to me, Galka we have experienced a lot together, and that will always remain within my soul. Lucky Galka, you travel the lands of paradise, and I...live in my imagination and deepen in the spiritual world of art...I hug you from the bottom of my heart" (see M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky and A. Jawlensky, op. cit., vol. II, p. 29).

C. Weiler writes: "Jawlensky emphasised again and again, that he wanted these so-called 'Heads understood not as heads, but as pure form'" (Alexej Jawlensky, A Centennial Exhibition, Exh. cat., Pasadena, 1964, p. 57).

The present work is recorded in the artist's Cahier Noir, entitled Poesie des Abends, with the comment that it was to be sent to Galka in July 1933.

More from German & Austrian Art '96

View All
View All