Alexej von Jawlensky

“selection pictures of Jawlensky's painting art, on Wikiart”

“official website of Alexej von Jawlensky”

“We [Marianne and Jawlensky] are living out in the country, in a house so small, that one can hardly turn around. Despite all we work both, since we have our colors and paint again.”

“Here on our peninsula of Darss, we [ Marianne Werefkin and Jawlensky] still feel like we're on an expedition in search of provisions and artistic inspiration. Neither is to be found here. But there is an endless and splendid beach, delightful air, a sense of unlimited informality and weather unknown to us from our dear Bavaria: no thunderstorms, no steady rains, no cloudbursts. If Helen [the maid] can find the genius to cook something out of nothing, and we [Jawlensky and Marianne] to paint from nothing - then Prerow won't be half bad, provided that all remain healthy.”

“Three years [c. 1892-1895] passed in indefatigable care of his [Jawlensky's] mind and heart. Everything, everything that he received from me I pretended to take – everything that I poured into him I pretended to receive … so that he wouldn't feel jealous as an artist, I hid my art from him.”

“When people.. ..look into their souls, your work [will] be prophetic for them.. ..since life works from the inner to the outer and not the other way around.”

“I shall never forget those inspiring days when you initiated me into the sacred world of art. I shall never forget you really did make me what I am today.”

“'You are' the painter of the human soul. I know of no other modern painter of the human soul.”

“..we parted in 1914, when Kandinsky, being an enemy alien [because of the outbreak of World War 1. - he had a Russian nationality], had to flee from Germany to Switzerland, as did Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin too [Switzerland].. ..Ever since we parted in 1914, I have worked mainly by myself. After the First World War, here in Munich, we found that our Blue Rider group had broken up. Marc and Macke had both been killed [World War 1.], Kandinsky, Jawlensky and Marianne were no longer here..”

“They [ Kandinsky, Jawlensky and Klee, in their Der Blaue Reiter-period till 1914] were constantly arguing about art and each of them, at first, had his own ideas and his own style. Jawlensky was far less intellectual than Kandinsky or Klee and was often frankly puzzled by their theories. My 1908 portrait entitled 'Zuhören' ['Listening'] actually represents Jawlensky, with an expression of puzzled astonishment on his chubby face, listening to Kandinsky’s new theories of art.”

“Although Marianne von Werefkin remained active in the avant-garde art community [in Munich], she took a ten-year hiatus from painting between 1896 and 1906. The break in artistic production has been traditionally attributed to the attention she gave to advancing Jawlensky's career, but it is also apparent that she needed the time to develop a new artistic language, as she moved away from the Realist style which had dominated her work in Russia.”

“Frankly, I think there is something wrong with Jawlensky's dots [in his paintings, then]. Anybody can pick up that style if they want to.”

“(Ich kann nicht Deutsch schreiben oder sprechen)... I can't speak or write German, but I'am overjoyed because I have bought one of your pictures. Now it is in me. I write music. You are my teacher.”

“When we had been in Ashenstovo [1873, located near the Prussian border]] a few days my mother took us children to see a famous Polish church, Kostjol, famous for its miraculous Madonna icon. This icon had three precious coats, one of gold, one of coral and one with pearls and diamonds.. .Many peasant men and women were were lying prostrate on the floor as if crucified, with their arms outstretched. It was very quiet. Suddenly a great blare of trumpets shattered the silence. Terribly frightened I saw the gold curtain open and the Madonna appear wearing a gold robe.”

“My art in the last period has all been in small format, but my paintings have become even deeper and more spiritual, speaking purely through colour.. .And now I leave these small – but to me – important works to the future and to the people who love art.”

“It was very tiny, our house [ St. Prex ], and I had no room for my own, only a window, which I could call mine. But I was so gloomy and unhappy in my soul after all those dreadful experiences, that I was quite content to sit at the window and quietly collect my thoughts and feelings. I had a bit of paint but no easel, so I went into Lausanne – twenty minutes on the train – and bought a small easel from a photographer.. .It was highly unsuitable for painting but for more than twenty years I have painted my best work on that little easel [in mainly small sizes].”

“I sat in my studio and painted, and did not need Nature as a prompter [is after 1921, when he painted the series 'Abstrakter Kopf' / 'Abstract Head'.] I only had to immerse myself in myself, pray, and prepare my soul to a state of religious awareness. I painted many, many 'Faces'.”

“I knew that I must paint not what I saw, but only what was in me, in my soul. Figuratively speaking, it was like this: In my heart I felt as if there were an organ, which I had to sound. And nature, which I saw before me, only prompted me. And that was a key that unlocked this organ and made it sound.. .They are songs without words.”

“At first I intended to carry on working in Saint-Prex [in Switzerland, circa 1914 – 1915] in the same way I had been working in Munich [the location of his Blaue Reiter / Blue Rider period]. But something inside me prevented me from painting colourful, sensuous pictures. Suffering had changed my soul, telling me to find other forms and colours to express what was on my mind.”

“Every artist works within a tradition. I am a native of Russia. My Russian soul has always been close to the art of old Russia, the Russian icons, Byzantine art, the mosaics in Ravenna, Venice, Rome, and to Romanesque art. All these artworks produced a religious vibration in my soul, as I sensed in them a deep spiritual language. This art was my tradition.”