Soulmates Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin Edited by Roman Zieglgänsberger, Annegret Hoberg, and Matthias Mühling With contributions by Mara Folini, Jelena Hahl-Fontaine, Annegret Hoberg, Angelica Jawlensky Bianconi, Laima Laučkaité, Anna Straetmans, Sandra Uhrig, and Roman Zieglgänsberger In cooperation with Alexej von Jawlensky-Archiv S.A., Muralto, CH Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna—Fondazione Marianne Werefkin, Ascona, CH PRESTEL Munich · London · New York Soulmates Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin Edited by Roman Zieglgänsberger, Annegret Hoberg, and Matthias Mühling With contributions by Mara Folini, Jelena Hahl-Fontaine, Annegret Hoberg, Angelica Jawlensky Bianconi, Laima Laučkaité, Anna Straetmans, Sandra Uhrig, and Roman Zieglgänsberger In cooperation with Alexej von Jawlensky-Archiv S.A., Muralto, CH Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna—Fondazione Marianne Werefkin, Ascona, CH PRESTEL Munich · London · New York Foreword 12 Acknowledgements 16 Biography of a Couple: Jawlensky and Werefkin— 19 Shared and Separate Paths “No thunderstorms, no steady rain, no cloudbursts” 40 Soulmates—Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin and Their Artistic Development I Munich 65 1896–1906 Jawlensky and Werefkin—The First Decade in Munich 90 Conversation as a Medium—Werefkin’s “Pink Salon” and 100 Her Self-Image as an Artist, 1896–1906 II Munich, Murnau, Prerow, and Oberstdorf 109 1907–1914 Jawlensky and Werefkin—In the Circle of the Neue Künstlervereinigung 200 München and the Blue Rider III Together in Switzerland (Saint-Prex, Zurich, Ascona) 221 1914–1921 From Residents of Munich by Choice to “Enemy-State Foreigners” 246 and Exiles: The Outbreak of World War I and the Situation of Russian Artists in Germany and Switzerland Jawlensky and Werefkin—New Beginnings, Encounters, 252 and Endings: Notes on their Swiss Years Together between 1914 and 1921 IV Separate Paths—Werefkin in Ascona and Jawlensky in Wiesbaden 263 1921–1941 The Ticino of Marianne von Werefkin—The Art of Life under 278 the Open Sky and Stars The Cathedral Spire—Alexej von Jawlensky in Wiesbaden 284 V The Letters in Vilnius 291 New Finds on the Artist Couple Jawlensky and Werefkin in Russian Letters 292 The Correspondence between Manya and Lulu in the 300 Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Vilnius Appendix 306 Foreword 12 Acknowledgements 16 Biography of a Couple: Jawlensky and Werefkin— 19 Shared and Separate Paths “No thunderstorms, no steady rain, no cloudbursts” 40 Soulmates—Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin and Their Artistic Development I Munich 65 1896–1906 Jawlensky and Werefkin—The First Decade in Munich 90 Conversation as a Medium—Werefkin’s “Pink Salon” and 100 Her Self-Image as an Artist, 1896–1906 II Munich, Murnau, Prerow, and Oberstdorf 109 1907–1914 Jawlensky and Werefkin—In the Circle of the Neue Künstlervereinigung 200 München and the Blue Rider III Together in Switzerland (Saint-Prex, Zurich, Ascona) 221 1914–1921 From Residents of Munich by Choice to “Enemy-State Foreigners” 246 and Exiles: The Outbreak of World War I and the Situation of Russian Artists in Germany and Switzerland Jawlensky and Werefkin—New Beginnings, Encounters, 252 and Endings: Notes on their Swiss Years Together between 1914 and 1921 IV Separate Paths—Werefkin in Ascona and Jawlensky in Wiesbaden 263 1921–1941 The Ticino of Marianne von Werefkin—The Art of Life under 278 the Open Sky and Stars The Cathedral Spire—Alexej von Jawlensky in Wiesbaden 284 V The Letters in Vilnius 291 New Finds on the Artist Couple Jawlensky and Werefkin in Russian Letters 292 The Correspondence between Manya and Lulu in the 300 Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Vilnius Appendix 306 Foreword the work of its first postwar director, Clemens Weiler, who not only published the first Jaw- lensky monograph in 1955, but three years later marked the twentieth anniversary of Weref- kin’s death by staging Germany’s first postwar exhibition of her art. Weiler thus established the tradition of researching the life and the oeuvre of both artists, one that the Museum Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin were each remarkable artists in their own Wies baden has carried on to this day. right, yet never before has an exhibition been devoted to these two great modernists as a Soulmates rests on a revealing and complementary array of works by Jawlensky and couple. Our project is the first to present them as two artists who were bonded together in Werefkin that the two curators, Roman Zieglgänsberger and Annegret Hoberg, selected life, as in art, for nearly thirty years, and who like the other famous couple, Wassily Kan- from the wealth of material held by the museums in Wiesbaden and Munich. That we were dinsky and Gabriele Münter, count among the great pioneering figures of the Expressionist able to supplement these with crucial additions is thanks to the constructive co operation avant-garde. of two other major collections, the Alexej von Jawlensky-Archiv S.A. in Muralto and the When Jawlensky and Werefkin left Saint Petersburg in 1896, they decided to settle in Fondazione Marianne Werefkin in Ascona. We would therefore like to extend our sincerest Munich, where for ten years Werefkin suspended her own painting to concentrate exclu- thanks to Angelica Jawlensky Bianconi and Mara Folini for so kindly agreeing to place so sively on nurturing her partner’s talent, including by studying art theory and engaging with many valuable, indeed indispensable works by Jawlensky and Werefkin at our disposal, and the contemporary art of the day. Both as theorists (Werefkin) and as a source of painterly for each contributing such a knowledgeable and insightful essay to the catalogue. stimuli (Jawlensky), they left their imprint on two movements that were to shape the course Heartfelt thanks also go out to our many other institutional and private lenders, with - of art history: the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Artists’ Association Munich, out whose major loans we would not have been able to produce such a consistent and sub- NKVM), which they cofounded in 1909 and whose meetings they hosted at their home on stantial exhibition and catalogue. We would also like to thank our other external authors, Giselastrasse in Munich, and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), the group that was to grow namely Jelena Hahl-Fontaine, Laima Laučkaité, and Sandra Uhrig, who between them out of it. Whether individually or in concert, each can be credited with having made a major paint a multifaceted picture of various aspects of the life and works of these two artists, as is contribution to the development of modern art in the early days of the twentieth century. especially apparent in the editors’ extensive double biography “Shared and Separate Paths.” At the outbreak of World War I, Werefkin and Jawlensky went into exile in Switzer- We would also like to thank Brigitte Salmen of the PSM Privatstiftung Schloßmuseum land, where they lived and worked together in very cramped conditions before finally de- Murnau for granting us permission to reproduce numerous photographs from Marianne von ciding to separate in 1921. Werefkin remained in Ascona, while Jawlensky and his family Werefkin’s estate and for reliably supplying the same. We are similarly indebted to Isabelle moved to Wiesbaden. Jansen, curator of the Gabriele Münter- und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, and her assistant, Under the circumstances, it is indeed remarkable that their work has hitherto received Marta Koscielniak, who kindly provided important, in some cases unpublished, documents the attention it deserves only in the larger context of the Blue Rider group or in solo ex- and photographs, and to the Alexej von Jawlensky-Archiv in Muralto at Lago Maggiore. hibitions and publications. Our show is thus the first to explicitly present Jawlensky and As always, both museums could rely on the dedication and professionalism of their Werefkin as an artist couple. The German title Lebensmenschen, which we have translated staff. Especially deserving of mention here are the conservators, Iris Winkelmeyer, Isa Päff- as Soulmates, is borrowed from Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, who used his coinage gen, and Daniel Oggenfuss at the Lenbachhaus, and Ines Unger and Pascale Regnault at the to describe the kind of bond that far surpasses any purely amorous relationship. A Le­ Museum Wiesbaden, who between them will be taking care of all the works, including those bensmensch is thus whoever is “felt to be the most important person in one’s life”—which on loan, from Munich to Ascona. Our sincere thanks also go to Anna Straetmans, assistant is also the definition used in today’s digital dictionaries. For the purposes of our concept, it curator at the Lenbachhaus, who dedicated so much time and effort to the installation of the seemed to capture perfectly the never easy, highly complex, at times fraught, and always exhibition, the handling of the illustrations, and the catalogue. intense relationship between Jawlensky and Werefkin, who from start to finish were welded The exhibition concept and the idea of making it the first ever presentation of these together by their fierce determination to dedicate their lives to art and at the same time to two artists as a couple in order to open up new perspectives on their respective oeuvres create something new. were the brainchild of Roman Zieglgänsberger, who along with Annegret Hoberg brought The exhibition, the conception of which was the work of the Lenbachhaus Munich both exceptional expertise and dedication to bear on this project. It is therefore to them that, in close collaboration with the Museum Wiesbaden, traces each artist’s development both in closing, we extend our most heartfelt thanks. individually and in relation to each other as well as the constantly changing nature of their personal situation. The two museums were able to draw on their own substantial holdings as well as the findings of their own research.