One could accuse the Museum Wiesbaden of throwing the sausage at the bacon side: Alexej von Jawlensky is the subject of his current major special exhibition, and wasn't he already in the previous year, when "Lebensmenschen" ran there, documenting his artistic and private relationships Marianne von Werefkin? And when in the last few years would Jawlensky not have been an issue at all in this house, which has the largest stock of the painter's works in public collections? After all, he lived here for almost twenty years. But precisely because of this: How could the museum have passed by on the centenary of its move to Wiesbaden? Marked Jawlensky's return from Switzerland - after the Russian artist, who felt closer to Germany than his homeland,but had been expelled from the country by the imperial government in the summer of 1914 as a member of an enemy state - a decisive date for him and the city. Thanks to him, Wiesbaden became a focal point of aesthetic modernity during the Weimar Republic, and Jawlensky, in turn, literally found peace there before his art was assessed as "degenerate" by the National Socialists and systematically removed from German museums.before his art was assessed as "degenerate" by the National Socialists and systematically removed from German museums.before his art was assessed as "degenerate" by the National Socialists and systematically removed from German museums.
Andreas Platthaus
Editor in charge of literature and literary life.
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Also from the Wiesbadener, which had previously generously bought works by the local art saint, but was only able to save one of them during the Nazi era: For unknown reasons, a lithograph portfolio from 1922 with six woman's head drawings escaped selection and is now the start of the exhibition, the bears the title “Everything!” and actually presents all of the Jawlensky's in the museum, 111 in total. Among them the latest addition - bought especially for this show from the estate of the important Jawlensky sponsor and gallery artist Hanna Bekker vom Rath - a large flower still life from November 1937. That was the year in which Jawlensky, whose health had been bad for a long time and was financially shaken by the official ban, made his last trip: in late summer to Munich,where he visited the disgraceful exhibition “Degenerate Art” and was once again able to enjoy the German modern art that he had decisively shaped. At the end of the year his last paintings were created; after that he did not paint until his death in 1941. Fittingly, the flower still life marks the end of the exhibition.
An unusual hanging
But there are no chronological reasons for this. Rather, the in-house Jawlensky specialist Roman Zieglgänsberger made the unusual decision to hang the pictures after they were purchased by the museum. Hence the heads at the beginning and the flowers at the end. In between, surprising neighbors emerge in the creative process, and the story of reparation also becomes visible. Clemens Weiler, long-time director of the house, made building up a new Jawlensky collection after the war a top priority and made continuous purchases from 1948 to 1972, including after Jawlensky's widow and son moved from Wiesbaden to Switzerland in 1957. But it wasn't until the year after Weiler's retirement that the most spectacular coup came about:Against great resistance in the city, the self-portrait from 1912 was acquired from the art trade for 380,000 marks. Today it is the icon of the museum, and in the exhibition it has its own room, on the walls of which there are only enlarged newspaper articles that document the dispute at the time. It is a lot of fun to read.
“Alles!” Offers much more than just works by Jawlensky. In the course of the exhibition, his pictures are hung on a slightly tinted fund on the left in the rooms, while the white walls on the right offer other art from the Wiesbaden museum collection, which, however, is in the context of Jawlensky's work. Works by Kandinsky, Klee and Feininger, for example, are gathered there, who together with Jawlensky, at the suggestion of his former lover and agent Galka Scheyer, formed the artist group "Blue Four" in order to conquer the American market. The Blue Rider is of course represented, but also artists from the post-war period, who were inspired by Jawlensky. The show tells a total of thirty such little stories. And so there is a great art story that tells ofhow a house can define itself around the central structure of its inventory.
Jawlensky's future lies in Wiesbaden
This is not only an innovative, but also an ideal exhibition idea in these corona times, which are a hindrance to international loan traffic.
It also manifests the demands of the Wiesbaden Museum in terms of Jawlensky care.
After a long estrangement between the house and the artist's descendants, the most beautiful mutual agreement has been established again for some time, which is expressed in the fact that Jawlensky's granddaughters Lucia Pieroni-Jawlensky and Angelica Jawlensky Bianconi founded the archive on the work of the Grandfather will move to Wiesbaden by 2025.
This will be a second homecoming that is worth celebrating.
The occasions for the Museum Wiesbaden to show Jawlensky will therefore not run out anytime soon.
Everything! 100 years of Jawlensky in Wiesbaden. In the Wiesbaden Museum; until March 27th. The material-rich catalog, which is also the company's Jawlensky inventory (Hirmer Verlag), costs 39.80 euros in the museum, otherwise 49.90 euros.