Galka Scheyer (1889-1945), born Emilie Esther Scheyer to a middle-class Jewish family in Braunschweig, Germany, was an agent, dealer, curator, and educator who became known as “The Maven of Modernism” and “Prophetess of the Blue Four.”
As a young adult, she trained in Germany to become an artist herself. But upon meeting Russian expressionist Alexei Jawlensky (1864-1941), her vocation pivoted.
Called “a painter of soul through color,” Jawlensky was known for his lush, vibrant hues and abstract heads, many of which evoke the traditional Russian Orthodox icons of his childhood.
Forced in 1914 to leave Germany, where he was living at the time, he fled to Switzerland where he and Scheyer became fast friends.
It was Jawlensky who gave her the name Galka, which means jackdaw or “inquisitive crow.”
He introduced her as well to Bauhaus masters Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956), Vassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) and Paul Klee (1879–1940). Feininger, who also worked as a cartoonist and caricaturist, was in the words of the Whitney Museum of Art “renowned for his romantic, crystalline paintings of architecture and seascapes.”
Kandinsky, Russian-born and a revered pioneer of Expressionism, believed that abstract art could convey emotions and universal spiritual truths. Klee experimented with cubism and surrealism and wrote extensively on color theory.
Over time Scheyer became the painters’ combination ambassador, impresario, and dealer. She dubbed them “The Blue Four” and, beginning in 1924, took it upon herself to spread their work throughout the U.S.
Where better than the forward-looking state of California? Starting in Oakland, then moving to the Los Angeles area, she gave lectures, instituted educational programs, and mounted exhibitions, drawing from her own ever-increasing collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculptures. Her efforts went far toward establishing California as a center for modern art.
In 1931, she moved into Rudolf Schindler’s King’s Road House in West Hollywood. There she met the architect Richard Neutra and his wife, Diana. She soon commissioned Neutra to design a home that would serve as both residence and gallery.
The Galka Scheyer House, located at 1880 Blue Heights Drive above Hollywood’s Sunset Plaza (and currently closed for renovations), was built in 1934. The floor-to-ceiling windows offered breathtaking views; its open, quintessentially Southern Californian floor plan included a working studio and ample storage. Scheyer entertained lavishly, hosting artists and literati, and lived there until her death at 56.
Her collection of more than 500 works of art and 800 documents is now housed permanently at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. Among other distinctions, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection features the most comprehensive gathering of Jawlensky’s work in the Western Hemisphere as well as works by, among others, Picasso, Diego Rivera and Imogen Cunningham.
Through July 20, Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum is featuring “Dear Little Friend: Impressions of Galka Scheyer.” Focusing on Scheyer’s legacy, the pocket-sized exhibit focuses on the personal relationships she cultivated with The Blue Four, other artists, and supporters.
Letters, photographs, and ephemera as well as paintings and drawings, combine to offer an intimate portrait of the kind of behind-the-scenes figure so often overlooked in the history and appreciation of art.
Jawlensky’s “Mystical Head: Galka” (1917), is a showstopper with its smears of purple, yellow, robin’s egg blue, and emerald green. Her eyes, outlined in thick black, are luminous and, considering her vision, fittingly huge.
There’s a charming 1934 colored-pencil portrait of Scheyer by Beatrice Wood, potter, described by the museum as “capturing the dynamic, performative energy of Scheyer’s presentations.” The artist Maynard Dixon inscribed his 1925 portrait of Scheyer “To Madame Moderne Kunst” — To Ms. Modern Art. A caricature by Wolo Trutzschle is less flattering.
Journalist Victoria Thomas, writing for “Local New Pasadena,” described Scheyer as “Short in height, hair dyed bright red, often clad in ethnic and folkloric clothes à-la Frida Kahlo … she was said to be shrill, loud, aggressive, and abrasive, with a speaking voice that could etch glass.”
If so, no matter. Photographer Edward Weston dubbed Scheyer “the ideal ‘go-between’ for the artist and his public.”
The show was organized by Gloria Williams Sander, who also curated the 2017 “Maven of Modernism” show and oversees the museum’s Galka Scheyer-Blue Four Archives.
You can learn more about The Blue Four, access lectures, and pore over their work at the Norton Simon Museum website. An upcoming panel discussion, to take place on May 2 from 5 to 6 p.m., is called “Richard Neutra's ‘Galka Scheyer House’: Past, Present and Future.”
Scheyer passed away in Hollywood from cancer in 1945. She had spent 20 years spreading the artistic gospel of the Blue Four in America. On the day of her death Lionel Feininger, one of the painters she championed, wrote a letter to her:
“What a sad little note — Galka is very ill. Galka doesn’t listen to music, nor does she read, only still she can look a little at pictures; pictures have always made out her chief happiness, her great object in living.”
