Lot 13 Dα

The painting “Meditation. Ein Brausen kam einher” is signed and dated to 1935 and belongs to the last important group of works by Jawlensky. His so-called “Meditationen” conclude a development within his oeuvre that began with the large, intensely colourful heads from the years before the First World War and then underwent a progressive chromatic and compositional reduction through the “Mystische Köpfe” and “Abstrakte Köpfe” from the twenties. With dark colours and a few black lines, he has reduced these faces to the absolutely essential. In the present work the nose is a wide diagonal line, the eyes and mouth are horizontal bars following a contrary course and the spaces between them are occupied by planes sparingly filled in with colour. The semi-abstract faces are disconnected from any sort of individuation: “My works from the last period have been in very small formats”, writes Jawlensky, “but the paintings are even deeper and more spiritual, spoken only through colour. Because I have sensed that, as a result of my illness, I will no longer be able to work in the future, I work like a man possessed on these little Meditations of mine” (cited in: Lebenserinnerungen, in: Alexej von Jawlensky. Reisen, Freunde, Wandlungen, ed. by Tayfun Belgin, exh. cat. Dortmund 1998, p. 119). These compositions, which were subject to only slight variations over the years, have often been associated with Russian Orthodox icons. What is certain is that they represent Jawlensky’s artistic search for an image of the divine and the quintessence of his oeuvre.