Sale: 360 / Modern Art, Dec. 12. 2009 in Munich Lot 171

 
Alexej von Jawlensky - Meditation


171
Alexej von Jawlensky
Meditation, 1935.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 42,700 / $ 46,116

(incl. surcharge)

Oil on paper, mounted on cardboard
Jawlensky 1756 (with illu. in colors p. 188). Monogrammed lower left, dated lower right. Signed, dated and inscribed "XI N5" as well as dedicated "Für Adga Holst zur Erinnerung und mit innigster Verehrung. A. Jawlensky" on verso of the backing cardboard. 19,4 x 15,1 cm (7,6 x 5,9 in)Backing cardboard: 20,5 x 16,1 cm (8 x 6,4 in).
The Swedish painter Agda Holst (1886 - 1976) meet Jawlensky in the studio of Kees van Dongen in Paris as early as in 1911. Little is known about their friendship. However, the dedication on this work hints at a special friendship that connected the two artists.

PROVENANCE: Agda Holst, Sweden.
Karin Stattin, Prästmon.
Bukowskis, Stockholm, 28 - 30 November 1989, lot 154.
Villa Grisebach auctions, Berlin, 13th auction, 1 June 1990, lot 41.
Private collection Berlin.
Private collection South Germany (acquired from Galerie Heseler, Munich).

Jawlensky only began his artistic training in 1889 in St. Petersburg. He studied under Ilja Repin who introduced him to Marianne von Werefkin and Helene Nesnakomoff, his later wife. Jawlensky accompanied these two to Munich in 1896 where they wanted to visit a private art school. Here Jawlensky met Wassily Kandinsky. The artist undertook several trips to France and was able to show ten paintings at the 'Salon d'automne' in 1905. In summer 1908 he worked with Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin and Gabriele Münter in Murnau for the first time. There, the four artists developed the idea for the foundation of the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung München' (Munich New Artist Association ) to which they aligned with other Munich artists in 1909. In December the same year the first exhibition took place in Munich. Two years later the 'Blauer Reiter' (Blue Rider ) was called to life as a new concept of artistic co-operation. In 1913 Jawlensky participated in Herwarth Walden's First German Autumn Salon in Berlin. When World War I broke out in 1914, Jawlensky was expelled from Germany. Together with his family and Marianne von Werefkin he moved to St. Prex on Lake Geneva and remained in Switzerland until 1921, where he began painting his abstract heads in 1918. Afterwards he finally settles in Wiesbaden. An attack of arthritis in 1929 forced the artist to visit various spas at regular intervals. Jawlensky suffered from a progressive paralysis and had difficulties in painting. In 1933 the National Socialists imposed an occupational ban on him. One year later the painter began the series of small-format 'Meditationen' (Meditations ).

The large number of ‘Meditations‘ is proof of how important the topic was to Jawlensky. He attempts to approach a picture that he latently bears within him in ever new variations. Based on portraits, he consequently creates the strikingly reduced form of the indestructible eternal, which make for the basis of all later ‘Meditations‘. The painting process is understood as a pseudo-sacral act, as the essence of which Jawlensky had internalized – somehow comparable with the process of creation of Chinese ink drawings, which can also be regarded as a spontaneous expression of an accumulation of optic impressions that have been gathered over a long period.

72 of his works were confiscated in 1937 as "degenerate". Four years later, in 1941, Jawlensky died in Wiesbaden. [KD].




171
Alexej von Jawlensky
Meditation, 1935.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 42,700 / $ 46,116

(incl. surcharge)