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ALEXEI JAWLENSKY | Abstrakter Kopf (Abstract Head)
估價
150,000 - 250,000 USD
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招標截止
描述
- Alexei Jawlensky
- Abstrakter Kopf (Abstract Head)
- Signed with the initials A.J. (lower left); signed A.v jawlensky, dated Wiesbaden 20 Nov. 28 and dedicated Für Fräulein Mela Escherich in tiefster Verehrung (on the reverse)
- Oil on canvasboard
- 10 3/8 by 8 1/4 in.
- 26.3 by 21 cm
- Painted circa 1927.
來源
Mela Escherich, Wiesbaden (acquired from the artist on November 20, 1928)
Galerie Thomas, Munich (acquired by 1976)
Private Collection, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Private Collection, Switzerland
Sale: Grisebach, Berlin, November 27, 2014, lot 49
Private Collection, Cologne (and sold by the estate: Native Auctions, Brussels, January 27, 2018, lot 117)
Private Collection, Brussels
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Galerie Thomas, Munich (acquired by 1976)
Private Collection, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Private Collection, Switzerland
Sale: Grisebach, Berlin, November 27, 2014, lot 49
Private Collection, Cologne (and sold by the estate: Native Auctions, Brussels, January 27, 2018, lot 117)
Private Collection, Brussels
Acquired from the above by the present owner
出版
Maria Jawlensky, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky & Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalogue raisonné of the Oil Paintings 1914-1933, vol. II, London, 1992, no. 1271, illustrated p. 405
Condition
The work is in excellent condition. The board is sound. The colors are bright and fresh. Under UV inspection, no inpainting is apparent.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
拍品資料及來源
Mela Escherich, to whom the present work is dedicated, was an art historian based in Wiesbaden, the town where Jawlensky settled in the early 1920s and began work on his seminal series of Abstract (or Constructivist) heads. Escherich championed Jawlensky in her 1926 treatise on Russian artists in Germany, characterizing him as “one of those distinguished figures whose art touches us like a breath from a better world” (Mela Escherich, “Russische Kunst in Deutschland,” in Osteuropa, Berlin, 1926, p. 461).
Jawlensky is unusual among modern artists in the consistency with which he pursued a single theme. Taking the strict format of the human face, an unbroken line of artistic development can be traced from his Fauve period through to the abstract faces of the 1920s and the glowing “Meditations” of his final years. The extraordinarily rich range within this series has been compared to a sort of abstract calendar for the artist, marking his interior responses to changing states of mind, emotions, weather and seasons: “For me the face is not just a face but the whole universe” (quoted in Clemens Weiler, Jawlensky, Heads, Faces, Meditations, London, 1971, n.p.).
As the present work attests, the application of paint in this series is so fine that extremely delicate nuances of tone were possible. Jawlensky modified the construction of these compositions slightly, but his prime means of expression was through color—the linear features have meaning only as a framework to support this color. The parallels to icon painting have inevitably been drawn, not least because the artist himself pointed to the importance of his spiritual heritage in his writings: “Every artist works in a tradition. Some take their tradition from the art of the Greeks, others from that of the Renaissance. I am Russian-born. As such my heart and soul have always felt close to old Russian art, to Russian icons, to the art of Byzantium, the mosaics of Ravenna, Venice and Rome and the art of the Romanesque period” (ibid., p. 11).
Jawlensky is unusual among modern artists in the consistency with which he pursued a single theme. Taking the strict format of the human face, an unbroken line of artistic development can be traced from his Fauve period through to the abstract faces of the 1920s and the glowing “Meditations” of his final years. The extraordinarily rich range within this series has been compared to a sort of abstract calendar for the artist, marking his interior responses to changing states of mind, emotions, weather and seasons: “For me the face is not just a face but the whole universe” (quoted in Clemens Weiler, Jawlensky, Heads, Faces, Meditations, London, 1971, n.p.).
As the present work attests, the application of paint in this series is so fine that extremely delicate nuances of tone were possible. Jawlensky modified the construction of these compositions slightly, but his prime means of expression was through color—the linear features have meaning only as a framework to support this color. The parallels to icon painting have inevitably been drawn, not least because the artist himself pointed to the importance of his spiritual heritage in his writings: “Every artist works in a tradition. Some take their tradition from the art of the Greeks, others from that of the Renaissance. I am Russian-born. As such my heart and soul have always felt close to old Russian art, to Russian icons, to the art of Byzantium, the mosaics of Ravenna, Venice and Rome and the art of the Romanesque period” (ibid., p. 11).