Variation: Zärtlichkeiten 1917

Alexej von Jawlensky made 'Variation: Zärtlichkeiten' with oil on canvas, we don't know exactly when. It's all about the touch, isn't it? Look at those marks. The way Jawlensky layers those luscious colors, feels almost like a painterly massage. The canvas peeks through in places, adding this gorgeous texture. It's like he's building up these emotional layers, one stroke at a time. I keep coming back to this orangey-brown blob towards the bottom, kind of like a head in profile. The way the colors blend there is so tender, like he's really feeling his way through it. It reminds me of Arthur Dove, that early American modernist who was also trying to capture something spiritual in paint. Both of them understood that art isn't about perfection; it's about process, about embracing the messy, beautiful ambiguity of being alive.