Berglandschaft mit Häusern 1912

This is Berglandschaft mit Häusern, a landscape with houses by Alexej von Jawlensky, and it’s a lesson in how to see color. Look at those mountains, not green or brown, but big, moody blues. The paint is laid on thick here, not trying to hide itself. It’s all about the surface. See how the colors aren’t blended perfectly? It’s like Jawlensky is saying, “Here’s the paint, here’s what it can do.” And those houses, they’re not trying to be realistic. They’re shapes, blocks of color nestled under the mountains. Notice the windows on the house at the front, just dark slashes. It’s a simple mark, but it gives the whole painting a kind of rhythm. He has this process of simplifying, of reducing things to their most basic form, but then filling them with so much feeling. In that sense, he reminds me a bit of Milton Avery, who also understood the power of a simple shape and how it can convey so much.