Abstract Head

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Abstract Head
Alexej von Jawlensky, c. 1928
Oil on cartoon
30.8 × 24 cm, 12.1 × 9.4 in
Private collection

Abstract Head (circa 1928) is an oil painting by Russian expressionist Alexej von Jawlensky.

At about the end of the World War I, von Jawlensky started to draw 'mystic heads' or 'faces of saints'. He gave them poetic titles like Moonlight or Inner Look. Like Claude Monet, he ended up concentrating on a single theme. Its appearance remained more or less constantly the same, yet varied in the use of the brush, the colourings and, first of all, in the mimic art in order to bring up new aspects until yet unknown of a transcendent spirituality.