After an initial artistic period in his home country, Russian artist Alexéi von Jawlensky (1864-1941) developed most of his career in Switzerland and Germany, where, in contact with Kandinsky, his circle became one of the protagonists of the expressionist movement through the New Artists' Association of Munich and his relationship with the group The Blue Rider.

A pioneer developing paintings heading towards abstration, his works are based on series and almost obsessive returns to the same theme, in particular, faces. Jawlensky represents, over and over, what seems to be the search of an "essential", invisible image, a quest of the Russian icon and its meaning. Jawlensky's tenacity focusing on faces, bring us to contemplate an intense testimony of the artistic creative process and before a key issue in our present existence: contemplating another's face when, for different reasons, we often see it with a veil.

Fundación MAPFRE