亞力瑟·馮·亞爾倫斯基 | 《抽象頭像：清醒》

藝術家身後（起碼藏至1965年）
西格弗里德·阿德勒，琉森
現藏家1969年購自上述藏家

日內瓦，克魯吉爾畫廊，〈亞力瑟·亞爾倫斯基〉，1963年，品號46 （題為《清醒》）

洛杉磯，達爾澤爾·哈特菲爾德畫廊，〈亞力瑟及安德烈亞斯·亞爾倫斯基〉，1964年

紐約，萊昂納德·赫頓畫廊，〈亞力瑟·亞爾倫斯基一百週年紀念展〉，1965年，品號50 （題為《建構頭像：清醒》）

畫家清單（黑色筆記），列於16頁

克萊門斯·魏勒，《亞力瑟·亞爾倫斯基》，科隆，1959年，品號302，249頁載圖（題為《清醒》）

克萊門斯·魏勒，《亞爾倫斯基：頭像、面部、默想》，倫敦，1971年，品號231，列於124頁

瑪麗亞·亞爾倫斯基、盧西安·皮耶羅尼·亞爾倫斯基、安潔莉卡·亞爾倫斯基，《亞力瑟·馮·亞爾倫斯基：油畫專題目錄》，倫敦，1991年，第II冊，品號1243，389頁載彩圖

Jawlensky’s mature work was dominated by several series of paintings on the theme of the human face, throughout which his treatment of the features becomes increasingly stylised and abstracted. The present work belongs to the series of Abstract Heads, characterised by a grid of predominantly horizontal and vertical lines and brightly painted blocks of pigment. The typically long, U-shaped face with a strong symmetrical structure was first conceived in 1918, and Jawlensky worked on this series until 1935. A growing interest in Indian philosophy and the life of Indian yogis appear to have had a strong influence on the series, as suggested by the meditative closed eyes and the overall reduction of the composition to the purest pictorial elements of colour and line. Gradually abandoning the signs of individuality and character, and focusing on the formal elements in his painting, in his mature work, such as Abstrakter Kopf: Klarheit, Jawlensky arrived at a style through which he was able to convey a sense of harmony and universal spirituality.

 

His use of anonymous heads to express the power of colour and line reflects Jawlensky’s belief that ‘human faces are for me only suggestions to see something else in them – the life of colour, seized with a lover’s passion’ (quoted in C. Weiler, op. cit., 1971, p. 12). Another important influence on Jawlensky’s form of abstraction was the multi-dimensional approach of the Cubists, whose fragmented and highly abstracted compositions he had seen in Paris. As Clemens Weiler has noted: ‘Cubism, with which he became acquainted in 1910, supplied Jawlensky with the means of simplifying, condensing and stylizing the facial form even further, and this simplified and reduced shape he counterbalanced by means of even more intense and brilliant colouring. This enabled him to give these comparatively small heads a monumentality and expressive power that were quite independent of their actual size’ (ibid., p. 14).