Jawlensky the promised face

Itzhak Goldberg

Publié par L'Harmattan, le 30 juillet 2020

278 pages

Résumé

The whole issue of the face is central to the work of Alexei von Jawlensky (1846-1941), this Russian painter who emigrated to Germany. His work hovers between figurative and abstract representation of the face and offers another viewpoint on modernity. How is it that a contemporary painter managed to devote virtually all of his production to the face? How could he choose for his work's paradigm such a traditional form as the icon? Jawlensky exemplifies the artist who participated in modernity without belonging to it and experienced the frontiers between genres. His artistic quest achieved an impossibility: the abstract face.