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: Overture
- Date: c.1919
- Medium: Oil and pencil on textured wove paper mounted on thin cardboard
- Dimensions: 14-3/8 x 10-5/8 in. (36.5 x 27.0 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
- Accession Number: P.1953.132
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum
Object Information
Galka Scheyer, by 1930s;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.
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
My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four
- Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14
The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee
- Oakland Art Gallery, 1931-08 to 1931-09-14
Alexei Jawlensky (1864-1941)
- Norton Simon Museum, 2007-05-04 to 2007-11-05
- The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 147 pp. 53, 55
- Jawlensky, Maria, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, and Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1914-1933, 1992, no. 1092
- Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 168 p. 154
Additional Artwork by Artist
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