Abstract Head: Life and Death
1923
Alexei Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941)
Not on View

Many writers have noted Jawlensky's progressively religious concentration upon the human face during the last twenty years of his life. He expressed this spiritualized conception of humanity in a letter written in June 1938: "I knew that great art should only be painted with religious feeling. And that was something I could bring only to the human face. I realized that the artist must express...that within him which is divine. That is why the work of art is a visible God, and why art is 'a longing for God.'"

Details

  • Artist Name: Alexei Jawlensky (Russian, 1864-1941)
  • Title: Abstract Head: Life and Death
  • Date: 1923
  • Medium: Oil and pencil on cardboard
  • Dimensions: 16-3/4 x 12-7/8 in. (42.5 x 32.7 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
  • Accession Number: P.1953.078
  • Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum

Object Information

The artist, to;
[Neue Galerie Fides, Dresden];
Galka Scheyer, probably by 1923;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.

Jawlensky exhibition

  • Stuttgart, Kunsthaus Schaller, 1923-06 to 1923-06

Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937

  • Neue Galerie New York, 2014-03-13 to 2014-06-30

A. v. Jawlensky

  • Kunsthütte zu Chemnitz, 1923-04 to 1923-04

Jawlensky

  • Los Angeles, Stendahl Art Galleries, 1940-05-13 to 1940-06-01

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Braxton Gallery, 1930-03-16 to 1930-03-31

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • New York, The Daniel Gallery, 1925-02-20 to 1925-03-10

Jawlensky and the Serial Image

  • Irvine, University of California, University Art Gallery, 1966-03-11 to 1966-03-31
  • Riverside, University of California, Art Gallery, 1966-04-04 to 1966-04-30

Blue Four exhibition

  • San Diego, San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, 1927-01 to 1927-02
  • San Diego, San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, to

Paths to Abstraction: Pioneers of Early 20th Century Painting

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1989-01-19 to 1990-01-14

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Oakland Art Gallery, 1926-05-02 to 1926-06-15

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Portland, Portland Art Association and the Museum of Art, 1927-04-08 to 1927-05-01
  • Spokane, Spokane Art Association, 1927-05-15 to 1927-05-31
  • San Francisco, California School of Fine Arts, 1927-03-01 to 1927-03-20

East Meets West: Russian Art from the 18th through the 20th Century

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1987-10-01 to 1988-04-17

The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee

  • Los Angeles, University of California, Los Angeles, Art Department, 1926-11 to 1926-12-28
  • Los Angeles, Los Angeles Museum, 1926-10 to

Blue Four exhibition

  • Henry Art Gallery, 1927-10 to 1927-10

Selections from the Galka E. Scheyer Blue Four Collection

  • Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-10-02 to 1973-11-18

Selections from Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Paul Klee. The Blue Four Galka E. Scheyer Collection

  • Seattle Art Museum, 1956-10-10 to 1956-11-04
  • Portland, Portland Art Museum, 1956-11-08 to 1956-11-30
  • , 1957-01-01 to 1957-01-31
  • Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, 1957-03-02 to 1957-04-01
  • Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, 1957-11-15 to 1957-12-15
  • San Francisco Museum of Art, 1958-01-14 to 1958-02-23
  • Vancouver Art Gallery, 1956-07 to 1956-08-31

Klee, Kandinsky, Jawlensky: Works from the Bauhaus Period

  • School of Art Gallery, The Ohio State University, 1966-11-11 to 1966-11-30

Die Blaue Vier: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee in der Neuen Welt

  • Kunstmuseum Bern, 1997-12-05 to 1998-03-01
  • Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordhein-Westfalen, 1998-03-28 to 1998-06-28

The Galka Scheyer Collection: Klee, Nolde, Jawlensky, Moholy-Nagy, Schmidt-Rottluff, Schwitters, Archipenko, Kandinsky, Lissitzky, Feininger, Kirchner, Dix_1

  • La Jolla, Art Center in La Jolla, 1960-07-05 to 1960-08-14

My Four Kings: Galka Scheyer and the Blue Four

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2002-12-13 to 2003-04-14

The Blue Four and Their Contemporaries

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1991-06-20 to 1992-05-24

The Blue Four

Bauhaus Painters; Spirit of Modernism: Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, Oskar Schlemmer, Alexander Archipenko, Alexei Jawlensky and Others

  • Seoul, Ho-Am Art Museum, 1996-02-08 to 1996-04-28

Permanent and Loan Collection, 1973

  • Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1973-01-30 to 1973-12-31

Alexei Jawlensky (1864-1941)

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2007-05-04 to 2007-11-05

Visions and Icons: the Art of Alexei Jawlensky

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1990-01-18 to 1991-04-14

The Spirit of Modernism: Galka Scheyer in the New World

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1994-11-17 to 1996-01-14
  • Alexej von Jawlensky, p. 154
  • The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, 1976, no. 157 pp. 56, 73
  • Jawlensky, 1990, cover
  • Jawlensky, Maria, Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky, and Angelica Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1914-1933, 1992, no. 1212
  • Weiler, Clemens, Alexej von Jawlensky, 1995, no. 299
  • The Blue Four. Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Klee in the New World, 1997, no. 56 pp. 165, 343
  • Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum, 2002, no. 216 pp. 186-187

Additional Artwork by Artist

Abstract Head: Small Head on Wood Alexei Jawlensky 1921
Head Alexei Jawlensky 1912
Head Inclined to the Right, with Closed Eyes Alexei Jawlensky c. 1922

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