Stilleben mit Weinflasche 1904

Alexej von Jawlensky made this still life with a wine bottle using oil paint on canvas. I love how he builds up the image with these thick, juicy strokes of color. It’s all about the process, you know? Looking closely, you can really see the materiality of the paint. The way he layers those blues and greens on the table, it’s almost like you can feel the texture. And that red bowl! It’s practically vibrating with energy. There’s a real physicality to it, like he’s wrestling with the paint to get it just right. See that little dab of white on the edge of the tablecloth? It’s such a simple gesture, but it really brings the whole thing to life. Jawlensky was pals with Kandinsky and shared a lot of the same ideas about art. But where Kandinsky went all-in on abstraction, Jawlensky always kept one foot in the real world. It’s like he’s saying, ‘Yeah, art can be about pure feeling, but it can also be about a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread.’