Head c. 1912 - 1913

Alexej von Jawlensky made this painting, called Head, with oils, likely searching for a new way of seeing and being. The painting feels raw, like a sketch, but the colours are anything but tentative. Look at the deep blues and greens around the head contrasting with the pink, red, and purple of the face and neck. I can almost feel Jawlensky working, turning the canvas, adding layer upon layer, letting the colours bleed into one another. The heavy black lines feel almost like a form of anxious mark-making. The way they redefine the planes of the face and neck really pull the image into something quite modern. Painters are always looking at each other's work, building on what came before. I see echoes of Van Gogh’s portraits here, especially in the intensity of the gaze, but Jawlensky is pushing it further, into something more abstract, more psychological, less about appearances and more about inner states. It’s like he's showing us not just a face, but a feeling.