The Russian-German painter Alexej von Jawlensky was something of a sponge. Born in 1864 and channeled toward a military career, he was 18 when he experienced an epiphany upon visiting the All-Russian Exhibition of Industry and Art. By 1896 he had abandoned the Tsar’s army and left St. Petersburg to criss-cross continental Europe, soaking in the avant-garde. In France, he analyzed the Post-Impressionist pictures of Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, and exhibited with the Fauves at their maiden Salon d’Automne. In Germany, he befriended Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky, dabbled in theosophy, and joined the Expressionist splinter group The Blue Rider. But it wasn’t until W.W. I drove Jawlensky into Switzerland, at age 50, that an original artist was born. Through some 60 paintings on loan, this exhibition traces his career crescendo, which culminated in two important series—“Variations” and “Meditations.” —Harry Seymour