Abstract Head, Mysterium 1925

Alexej von Jawlensky made Abstract Head, Mysterium with oil, searching for a spiritual language of form and color. It feels like a face, but also something beyond. Look how Jawlensky builds up these planes of color. The surface has a smooth, almost waxy feel, where colors bleed and blend, rather than sitting on top. You can sense the fluidity of the paint, as if it was applied wet-on-wet, allowing for subtle gradations. In the center, there's a strong vertical line of white, like a beam of light, that anchors the composition. It pierces through the darker tones, creating a focal point that suggests a nose, but also perhaps something more transcendent. You can trace the way artists like Hilma af Klint and Agnes Martin experimented with similar pictorial languages, reaching for a kind of non-representational form that touches the mystical and mysterious. It is like he's scraping away at the surface to reveal something hidden beneath. It’s all mystery and process.