Winterstimmung 1932

Alexej von Jawlensky made this mysterious face, Winterstimmung, with oil paint on board. The red and grey planes are so cool and quiet; yet there's also something so human and monumental about this face. I can imagine Jawlensky making this, slowly building up layers of thin paint, almost like watercolor, and then wiping it away, and starting again until this image came into focus. There's something about the simplified shapes here that is so strange and moving. The way the lines are blurred and the colors bleed into each other gives the face a soft, dreamlike quality. It reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin's subtle use of color and line. But where Martin's work feels very calm and meditative, Jawlensky's has this undercurrent of intensity, like a quiet fire burning beneath the surface. Painters are always trying to talk to each other, across time, and through their art, leaving us clues to help us understand the world in new ways.