Alexej von Jawlensky at the Ravensburg Art Museum

For its tenth anniversary, the Ravensburg Art Museum is showing a solo exhibition of Alexej von Jawlensky, whose unique expressionist work has earned him a significant place in art history. In "Die Kunst ist eine geistige Sprache (Art is a Spiritual Language)", more than 30 works illuminate the various phases of the artist's work and illustrate his development as a painter. Inspired by the "Fauves" around Matisse and pioneers such as Paul Gauguin or Vincent van Gogh, Jawlensky found his very own pictorial language, which is characterised by an intense colourfulness and a simplified vocabulary of forms. From landscapes to still lifes, he explored his subjects in series. Above all, heads and the human face are a famous recurring motif in his work. Jawlensky was a founding member of the "Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Artists' Association Munich)" alongside Marianne von Werefkin and a later member of the "Blaue Reiter", founded by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc.

The starting point of the exhibition is the painting " Spanisches Mädchen (Spanish Girl)" (1912) from the Selinka Collection of the Ravensburg Art Museum, which can now be viewed in the context of the artist's oeuvre as a whole.