Still Life with Begonia 1911

Alexej von Jawlensky made this painting of a begonia, and some fruit, with oil on canvas. Look at the brushwork – you can almost feel Jawlensky dabbing and swirling the paint! I wonder what it was like for him, setting up the still life, maybe adjusting the flowers, fiddling with the fruit. The electric blue is singing against the oranges and reds! There’s an energy here, like the colors are vibrating. Check out the confident strokes of the dark blue leaves. They’re not just green, they are practically black, which gives them a powerful presence in contrast to the delicate petals. Painting is all about this sort of call and response, a conversation between colors and forms. Artists have this ongoing chat, responding to each other across time. It is a kind of embodied expression, like a dance – and it's never really finished.