Alexej von Jawlensky
Kleinstmeditation
1936
Oil on card 14.7 x 9.2 cm Framed under glass. Monogrammed "A.J." in red lower left and dated "36" lower right. - Signed and dated most probably by Lisa Kümmel "A. Jawlensky 1936" in ink to the reverse, left visible by frame backing. - Partially glued to card support on the reverse. The lower corners with minimal defects at margins.
The art collector and publisher Dieter Keller (1909-1985), head of the Kosmos-Editions in Stuttgart, compiled a major collection of modern art. He was in close contact with Willi Baumeister and Oskar Schlemmer; numerous other artists were also among his friends. In 1939/40 Schlemmer created a large-scale mural for Keller's house in Vaihingen, a suburb of Stuttgart, and in 1948 Keller published the first monograph on the artist. According to Angelica Jawlensky Bianconi, Keller and Jawlensky knew each other personally. In fact, there is evidence that Keller and his wife visited Jawlensky in Wiesbaden in 1939 and that two works, which in the meantime have been identified as such, were given by the artist to the collector in 1940, one in the form of a purchase and the other as a gift. It was probably through their contact that the present "Kleinstmeditation" entered Dieter Keller's collection.
Catalogue Raisonné
M. Jawlensky/L.Pieroni-Jawlensky/A.Jawlensky 2114
Certificate
We would like to thank Angelica Jawlensky Bianconi, Locarno, for additional advice.
Provenance
Formerly collection Dieter Keller, Stuttgart; Kunsthaus Lempertz Cologne, 494th auction June 1967, lot 405; Alex Vömel, Düsseldorf; Galerie Rosenbach, Garbsen; Karl & Faber Munich, 210th auction May 2006, lot 979; Private collection, Munich
Exhibitions
Garbsen 1970 (Galerie Rosenbach), Kunst des XX. Jahrhunderts, Katalog 1, no. 249, illus. p. 30 (here erroneously dated "1935")