Visions and Icons: The Art of Alexei Jawlensky

The Norton Simon Museum presents Visions and Icons,  an exhibition of 100 works of art by the Russian painter Alexei Jawlensky. Taken from the Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, the exhibition marks the first time in over 25 years that the Museum will devote a major exhibition to the works of this 20th-century master. In addition to Jawlensky's paintings from the permanent collection, his drawings, prints, and letters will also be on view.

The son of a colonel in the Russian Imperial Army, Jawlensky left a promising career as a military officer to study painting in Munich in 1896. He exhibited at the famous Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1905, and worked with his countryman Vasily Kandinsky to establish the avant-garde artists' group, the New Association of Munich Artists, in 1909. In 1917, he met the young Galka Scheyer, who in order to promote the art of Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Lionel Feininger, organized "The Blue Four" and brought their work to America. Scheyer's collection of the works of the four is now housed at the Norton Simon Museum.