Selbstbildnis 1912

Alexej von Jawlensky, in this self-portrait, has rendered himself in oil with a kind of blocky intensity. It’s clear that art-making for Jawlensky, like for me, is a process, an act of discovery as much as representation. Check out the surface, so alive with texture, the paint applied in visible strokes – you can practically feel the bristles of the brush. The colours are anything but naturalistic. Jawlensky uses greens and yellows to model his face, with jolts of red, which gives the portrait an emotional charge. The green moustache, which is almost neon, is interesting, as if this is where Jawlensky is channeling all his feelings. Jawlensky’s contemporary, Emil Nolde, was likewise interested in using colour as an emotional force and both artists are part of a wider conversation in the early 20th century about how to use art to represent feelings, thoughts, and experiences in the modern world.