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Variation: Hymn
1919
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."

Variation: Hymn
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Details

  • Artist Name: Alexei Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941)
  • Title: Variation: Hymn
  • Date: 1919
  • Medium: Oil and pencil on textured wove paper mounted on cardboard
  • Dimensions: 14-1/8 x 10-5/8 in. (35.9 x 27.0 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
  • Accession Number: P.1953.135
  • Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum

Object Information

The artist, to;
Galka Scheyer, by 1923;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.

Music in the Visual Arts

Gesamt-Ausstellung Alexei von Jawlensky

  • Fritz Gurlitt (Gallery), 1920-06 to 1920-07
  • Munich, Galerie Hans Goltz, 1920-08-16 to 1920-09-11
  • Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, 1920-09-30 to 1920-10-28
  • Frankfurt-am-Main, Galerie Schames, 1920-11 to 1920-12
  • Wiesbaden, Nassauischer Kunstverein und Wiesbadener Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunste, 1921-01-09 to 1921-02
  • Barmen, Kunstverein/Ruhmeshalle, 1921-03 to 1921-04
  • Dusseldorf, Graphisches Kabinett J. B. Neumann, 1921-05 to 1921-06
  • Mannheim, Kunsthalle, 1921-11-06 to 1921-12-04
  • Essen, Kunstmuseum, 1922-02 to 1922-03

Olgemalde von Alexey von Jawlensky

  • Weimar, Landesmuseum, 1922-04-30 to 1922-06-01

Blue Four exhibition

  • Palo Alto, Stanford University, 1925-10 to 1925-10

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

Jawlensky exhibition

  • Galerie Emil Richter, 1922-11-07 to

Jawlensky exhibition

  • Stuttgart, Kunsthaus Schaller, 1923-06 to 1923-06

A. v. Jawlensky

  • Kunsthütte zu Chemnitz, 1923-04 to 1923-04

Selections from Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee. The Blue Four Galka E. Scheyer Collection

  • Seattle Art Museum, 1956-10-10 to 1956-11-04
  • Portland, Portland Art Museum, 1956-11-08 to 1956-11-30
  • , 1957-01-01 to 1957-01-31
  • Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, 1957-03-02 to 1957-04-01
  • Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, 1957-11-15 to 1957-12-15
  • San Francisco Museum of Art, 1958-01-14 to 1958-02-23
  • Vancouver Art Gallery, 1956-07 to 1956-08-31

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

  • New York, The Daniel Gallery, 1925-02-20 to 1925-03-10

Paths to Abstraction: Pioneers of Early 20th Century Painting

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

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

  • Braxton Gallery, 1930-03-16 to 1930-03-31

Blue Four exhibition

  • San Diego, San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, 1927-01 to 1927-02
  • San Diego, San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, to

Selections from the Galka E. Scheyer Collection

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

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

  • Portland, Portland Art Association and the Museum of Art, 1927-04-08 to 1927-05-01
  • Spokane, Spokane Art Association, 1927-05-15 to 1927-05-31
  • San Francisco, California School of Fine Arts, 1927-03-01 to 1927-03-20

Blue Four exhibition

  • Henry Art Gallery, 1927-10 to 1927-10

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

  • California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1931-04-23 to 1931-05-08

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

  • Los Angeles, University of California, Los Angeles, Art Department, 1926-11 to 1926-12-28
  • Los Angeles, Los Angeles Museum, 1926-10 to

Die Blaue Vier: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee in der Neuen Welt

  • Kunstmuseum Bern, 1997-12-05 to 1998-03-01
  • Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordhein-Westfalen, 1998-03-28 to 1998-06-28

Jawlensky: Meine liebe Galka!

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

My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14

The Blue Four

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

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

The Blue Four and Their Contemporaries

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1991-06-20 to 1992-05-24

Alexei Jawlensky

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

Alexei Jawlensky (1864-1941)

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

The Spirit of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in the New World

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

Visions and Icons: the Art of Alexei Jawlensky

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1990-01-18 to 1991-04-14
  • Scheyer, E. E., Das Kunsblatt, 1919, p. 165
  • The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 150 p. 55
  • Jawlensky, 1990, p. 16
  • Jawlensky, Maria, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, and Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1914-1933, 1992, no. 1108
  • Jawlensky, Maria, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, and Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1934-1937, 1993, note 3 p. 23
  • The Blue Four. Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Klee in the New World, 1997, no. 53 pp. 148, 342
  • Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 167 pp. 153-154
  • Museum Wiesbaden, Jawlensky: Meine liebe Galka!, 2004, pp. 128, 135
  • Gilbert Holzgang, Galka Scheyer : Ein Leben für Kunst und Kreativität, 2023, p. 110 (ill.)

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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