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Lot Essay
Painted in 1926, Abstrakter Kopf: inneres Schauen vom Glück ('Abstract Head: Inner Vision from Happiness') is an exquisite example from Alexej von Jawlensky’s celebrated series of the same name, its disciplined, restrained means of depicting the face and delicate colour palette of softly gradated pastel shades encapsulating many of the key characteristics of the artist’s highly nuanced experimentations from this period. Occupying the artist for over a decade, the Abstrakter Kopf series were among Jawlensky’s most contemplative paintings, with each work elegantly exploring the spiritual power of colour and abstract form through the medium of the human face. For Jawlensky, working in series offered an important means of exploring the meditative, introspective aspects of his subject matter. ‘I am not so much searching for new forms,’ he explained, ‘but I want to go deeper; not to progress in breadth but in depth’ (Jawlensky quoted in C. Weiler, Jawlensky: Heads Faces Meditations, New York, 1971, p. 17).
In many ways, the series recalls the religious icons of the artist’s native Russia, their unflinching frontal pose and innate ethereal, otherworldly spirit offering Jawlensky a pathway to personal reflection on the mysteries of the universe. Jawlensky believed that the human face could act as a medium for the experience of transcendence, with prolonged contemplation of the face eliciting a spiritual experience in both the artist and the viewer. In a letter written to Pater Willibrod Verkade, Jawlensky explained the genesis of the Abstrakter Kopf series: 'I had come to understand that great art can only be painted with religious feeling. And that I could only bring to the human face. I understood that the artist must express through his art, in forms and colours, the divine inside him. […] I sat in my studio and painted, and did not need Nature as a prompter. I only had to immerse myself in myself, pray, and prepare my soul to a state of religious awareness. I painted many 'Faces’ … They are technically very perfect, and radiate spirituality' (Jawlensky, letter to Pater Willlibrord Verkade, quoted in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, vol. I, 1890-1914, London, 1991, p. 34).
In many ways, the series recalls the religious icons of the artist’s native Russia, their unflinching frontal pose and innate ethereal, otherworldly spirit offering Jawlensky a pathway to personal reflection on the mysteries of the universe. Jawlensky believed that the human face could act as a medium for the experience of transcendence, with prolonged contemplation of the face eliciting a spiritual experience in both the artist and the viewer. In a letter written to Pater Willibrod Verkade, Jawlensky explained the genesis of the Abstrakter Kopf series: 'I had come to understand that great art can only be painted with religious feeling. And that I could only bring to the human face. I understood that the artist must express through his art, in forms and colours, the divine inside him. […] I sat in my studio and painted, and did not need Nature as a prompter. I only had to immerse myself in myself, pray, and prepare my soul to a state of religious awareness. I painted many 'Faces’ … They are technically very perfect, and radiate spirituality' (Jawlensky, letter to Pater Willlibrord Verkade, quoted in M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, vol. I, 1890-1914, London, 1991, p. 34).