Euromaidan 2014

Alevtyna Kakhidze made this drawing, Euromaidan, with what looks like colored pencils. It’s a simple, direct, almost childlike depiction, but don’t let that fool you. The shapes suggest barricades, maybe burning tires, with energetic scribbles of red, yellow, and blue. Look at the way the artist renders the flames, a controlled chaos. There's a raw, immediate quality that reminds me of Philip Guston's late work, the way he embraced a deliberately crude style to convey complex emotions. The black outlines give definition to the forms but the marks within are frantic, expressive, and open to interpretation. Kakhidze isn't trying to give us a polished, finished statement. She's capturing a moment, a feeling, a process. It’s not about the perfect image, it’s about the messy, complicated reality of the situation, which is what makes this work so compelling. Art isn’t always about answers, sometimes it’s about asking the right questions.