Soulmates

Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin occupy a prominent place in art history as a pioneering artist couple of the avant-garde movement. Jawlensky met Werefkin in 1891 in Ilya Repin’s Saint Petersburg studio and in 1896 they moved together to Munich where Werefkin gave up painting for almost ten years in order to nurture Jawlensky’s talent. In 1909, they became founding members of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München, and then, in 1911, of the Blue Rider group alongside artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and Gabriele Münter. During World War I, Jawlensky and Werefkin moved to Switzerland where their relationship ended. This is the first book to focus on the two artists’ partnership through all the various ups and downs of the many years of their relationship. Through explorations of both Jawlensky and Werefkin’s oeuvres, this book shows how the two made vital contributions to modernism in the 20th century, both individually and as a couple.