Answer to Jawlensky

The fantasy of the Zealand artist Marja de Lange-Nieuwenhuyse (1938-2016) knows no boundaries. From her earliest youth on she has searched for ways to express herself. She studied at the Art Academy of St. Niklaas, Belgium and at the Free Academy in Rotterdam. For years she painted ‘everyday life’ in a realistic style, with which she had great success. But in 1989 her passionate inner life required that she broke the barriers of realism. With a new palette she tried to keep pace with life as it manifests itself. For her, painting and drawing were as essential as breathing, and the involvement with the world around and in her was translated into hundreds of works. The Dutch book ‘Voor wie vleugels heeft, staat de hoogte open…’ (‘For who has wings, the height is open…’) offers an overview of her work in all its aspects. It’s an ode to imagination and to the freedom of the soul.

‘Art translates my life and survives my life. My shapes come into being by angry, emotional or tender gestures…’ (Diary)

The painting ‘Answer to Jawlensky’ arose after a period of sincere illness that she had to go through periodically. On days like that she could hardly work, while her inner life almost demanded it. In this she stood not allone of course; many artists had to cope with a handicapped body. For instance Alexej von Jawlensky, of whom she once got the booklet ‘Meditations’, with a number of the famous abstract faces the sick artist made during the last years of his life. These were painted on small panels, because he could not handle big sizes anymore. But what an intensity and what an animation! In the Dutch book ‘Voor wie vleugels heeft…’ the artist writes: ‘A message from me out of the polder; after our conversations and looking at and reading in Jawlensky’s booklet again and again, a painting began to grow. Everyday I work on ‘Answer to Jawlensky’.(…) The painting is a hommage to a fellow sufferer in exuberant colors and forms.