Alexej von Jawlensky - Meditation: Ich bin geborgen. Februar 1935 N. 63 - image-1

Lot 225 Dα

Alexej von Jawlensky - Meditation: Ich bin geborgen. Februar 1935 N. 63

Auction 1004 - overview Cologne
30.11.2012, 00:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 50.000 € - 55.000 €
Result: 109.800 € (incl. premium)

Alexej von Jawlensky

Meditation: Ich bin geborgen. Februar 1935 N. 63
1935

Öl auf leinen-strukturiertem Papier, auf Karton aufgezogen 18 x 13,7 cm

The studio index compiled by Lisa Kümmel and published by Weiler covers the years 1937-1939 and includes all the works which were in Jawlensky's studio at that time. Jawlensky had collaborated in the endeavour and contributed information about the items. According to Weiler (op.cit. p. 140), the artist provided notes on the quality of each respective listed work; the small 'Meditation' shown here was marked 'IAP' ('P' for 'private').
Very early on, writers attempted to describe the exquisite numinosity of the artist's work reaching its final pinnacle in the 'Meditations', painted by Jawlensky during his years in Wiesbaden. “In these works, Jawlensky created a Sacred Image that unlike sacred images of the past did not just arise out of Revelation, the modern intellectual mind had to constantly secure it anew. Because of this, the 'Meditations' are not stereotypical like the old icons. Instead, they are, time and again, as different as individuals and, at the same time, much the same as the 'Primal Consciousness' which connects all human beings.” (Clemens Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky, Cologne 1959, p. 128).
The 'I am secure' of this small 'Meditation' is like a religious confession of faith. In a broader sense, the 'Meditation' itself is the spiritualisation of the concentrated artistic form. Painting itself became 'meditation' for Jawlensky, and likewise, 'meditation' is the observer's contemplative regard resp. concentrated attention towards the sublime work of art.

Provenance

Estate of the artist; gift from Maria and Andreas Jawlensky to a couple of close acquaintance, Wiesbaden (1969); since then in family possession, private possession, Hesse

Literature

Clemens Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky, Köpfe, Gesichte, Meditationen, Wiesbaden 1970, no. 522

Exhibitions

Wiesbaden 1991 (Museum Wiesbaden), Alexej von Jawlensky zum 50. Todesjahr, Gemälde und graphische Arbeiten, cat. no.188 mit full-page illus. p. 266 (titled there by mistake with cat. no. 165); Wiesbaden 2011/2012 (Museum Wiesbaden), Alexej von Jawlensky/ Josef Albers. Farbe - Abstraktion - Serie, no. 23 with colour illus. p. 26