Variation: Tragic
c.1918
Alexei Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941)
Not on View

Jawlensky's Variations are colored, almost abstract meditations upon a few unchanging forms distilled from tree shapes. They clearly foreshadow the icon-like quality of his later work, with its eternal repetition of meditative signs. In a letter he wrote to Galka Scheyer in 1919, Jawlensky said, "Klee did not approve of. . .my pictures. . . .he said they are too intellectual, too thought out. I think all of that is wrong."

Details

  • Artist Name: Alexei Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941)
  • Title: Variation: Tragic
  • Date: c.1918
  • Medium: Oil and pencil on textured wove paper mounted on thin cardboard
  • Dimensions: 14-3/8 x 10-1/2 in. (36.5 x 26.7 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
  • Accession Number: P.1953.133
  • Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum

Object Information

The artist;
Galka Scheyer, by 1928;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.

Alexei Jawlensky (1864-1941)

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2007-05-04 to 2007-11-05

Jawlensky and the Serial Image

  • Irvine, University of California, University Art Gallery, 1966-03-11 to 1966-03-31
  • Riverside, University of California, Art Gallery, 1966-04-04 to 1966-04-30

Paths to Abstraction: Pioneers of Early 20th Century Painting

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1989-01-19 to 1990-01-14

Selections from the Galka E. Scheyer Collection

  • Pasadena Art Museum, 1970-09-08 to 1970-12-17

Jawlensky: Meine liebe Galka!

  • Wiesbaden, Museum Wiesbaden, 2004-10-23 to 2005-03-13

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Oakland Art Gallery, 1931-08 to 1931-09-14

Alexei Jawlensky

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1987-08-06 to 1987-12-13

Maven of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in California

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2017-04-07 to 2017-09-25

Visions and Icons: the Art of Alexei Jawlensky

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1990-01-18 to 1991-04-14

Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973

  • Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31

Bauhaus Painters; Spirit of Modernism: Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, Oskar Schlemmer, Alexander Archipenko, Alexei Jawlensky and Others

  • Seoul, Ho-Am Art Museum, 1996-02-08 to 1996-04-28

The Blue Four-Galka Scheyer Collection From The Norton Simon Museum

  • Henry Art Gallery, 1997-07-17 to 1997-10-05

The Spirit of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in the New World

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1994-11-17 to 1996-01-14

My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14
  • The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 143 p. 55
  • Jawlensky, Maria, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, and Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1914-1933, 1992, no. 1032
  • Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 156 pp. 143-144
  • Museum Wiesbaden, Jawlensky: Meine liebe Galka!, 2004, pp. 128-129

Additional Artwork by Artist

Abstract Head: Small Head on Wood Alexei Jawlensky 1921
Head Alexei Jawlensky 1912
Head Inclined to the Right, with Closed Eyes Alexei Jawlensky c. 1922

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