Alexej von Jawlensky
Alexej von Jawlensky was born on March 13, 1864, in Torzhok, Tver Province, and lived in Moscow from the age of ten. He began a military career and became interested in painting at the age of fifteen or sixteen. In 1889, already an officer in the Russian army, he requested a transfer to St. Petersburg, where he could combine military service with his studies, and entered the Academy of Fine Arts. There, the artist became a student of Ilya Repin and met Marianne von Werefkin, who, seeing a special gift in him, concentrated all her efforts on his development. In 1896, he left military service and moved with Marianne and her maid, Elena Neznakomova, to Munich to continue his art education in a more enlightened Europe. In Munich, Jawlensky enrolled in the Anton Ažbe School, popular among Russian artists, where he studied with Wassily Kandinsky.
The artist admired Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Matisse; he absorbed all the latest European painting trends and developed his own style, characterized by the bold use of bright, pure color. With the assistance of Sergei Diaghilev, he managed to exhibit several of his works at the Autumn Salon in Paris. The artist was popular, and his paintings sold well.
He and Marianne spent the summer of 1908 together with Kandinsky and Münter, and this short-lived but very fruitful creative union became the foundation of the New Association of Artists (Neue Künstlervereinigung München, or NKVM), which began its activities in January 1909. Jawlensky was also a member of the Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter), founded in 1911 by Kandinsky and his associates.
With the outbreak of war, the artist moved to Switzerland with Marianne, Elena, and Andrey (officially his nephew but in reality his son by Elena), where he lived in Saint-Prex on the shores of Lake Geneva. A period of crisis came, burdened by financial problems, wartime instability, and the inability to return to their relatives in Russia. The artist could not paint in his old "Munich" style and sought new ways of self-expression. His style was transformed toward a partial rejection of figuration and a simplification of forms.
In 1916, he met the German artist Emmy Scheyer, who, like Marianne twenty years earlier, was inspired by his work and served as his secretary and art dealer. From that moment, an important creative stage in the artist's life began: moving to Zurich, the center of cultural life, brought new ideas, a new style, numerous exhibitions, and finally, well-deserved recognition.
"I realized that an artist in his art should use forms and colors to talk about the divine in himself. Therefore, a work of art is a visible God, and art is a 'striving for God.'"
Young Woman with Peonies, 1909
Schokko, 1910
Village of Saint-Prex, 1916
Mystical Head, 1917
Abstract Head, 1922
