I sat in my studio and painted, and did not need Nature as a prompter [is after 1921, when he painted the series 'Abstrakter Kopf' / 'Abstract Head'.… - Alexej von Jawlensky

Every artist works within a tradition. I am a native of Russia. My Russian soul has always been close to the art of old Russia, the Russian icons, Byzantine art, the mosaics in Ravenna, Venice, Rome, and to Romanesque art. All these artworks produced a religious vibration in my soul, as I sensed in them a deep spiritual language. This art was my tradition.

..human faces are for me only suggestions to see something else in them – the life of colour, seized with a lover's passion.

Perhaps you have heard that Baroness Werefkin died in February. It was a great blow to me. Yes, indeed, sooner or later we have to pay for our mistakes once made. And often so severely.