Meditation N. 30 1934

Curator: Alexej von Jawlensky painted "Meditation N. 30" in 1934. It's a compact oil painting. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: Dark, inward. There's something incredibly raw about the texture, those visible brushstrokes laid down thick and fast. It gives it an almost sculptural feel. Curator: Absolutely. Those impasto strokes add to the work’s sense of the spiritual made tangible. You see Jawlensky wrestling with how to express interiority through very direct and tactile material means. This fits into his series of "Meditations," where he repeatedly simplified the human face into geometric forms. He thought of these as icons, windows into the soul. Editor: I can see that. Considering its spiritual aspiration, it's interesting to note the active and even aggressive application of oil paint. It doesn't feel delicate, which contradicts what many associate with meditation or inner peace. What was he trying to create through the physical act of its making? Curator: Precisely! He's wrestling, perhaps. These weren't passively received images but actively constructed representations of inner states, referencing centuries of iconographic practice while simultaneously breaking from it through expressionist means. Notice how certain colours dominate– blues around the "eyes," perhaps suggesting clarity or sadness? Reds and oranges around the center which read as vitality? Editor: And a stark contrast between the thickly applied paint and, presumably, the board he is using to apply it. The material limits what he can do while demanding he engages with its substance directly. There is no way of escaping that engagement with the physical and with labor. The repeated meditative form across these works acts more as a condition of that engagement than its result. Curator: It becomes about process over perfect replication, a uniquely modern take on ancient devotional practices. And perhaps it gives us a little window into understanding devotion not just as calm resolve, but at times, wrestling with what that really means, even the darker undercurrents. Editor: Well, I didn't expect to feel this connected to an expressionist devotional image. Very moving, on reflection. Curator: Indeed. Thank you for those thoughtful considerations; hopefully, our listeners will agree!