Great Prophets. Prophet Jonah 2015

Dmytro Kavsan made this ink drawing of the Prophet Jonah, sometime around 2015. The graphic quality, and the stark contrast of black ink on the white page, lends the image a dreamlike quality, and evokes a sense of the surreal. The tower of grey ink sits at the heart of the composition, created by the overlapping of curving lines that give the form an almost three dimensional quality. This central image feels like an eruption, the kind of intense moment which recurs throughout the stories of the Old Testament. The town, precariously perched on top of this vortex, is rendered with a light touch. The forms, rapidly drawn, feel unstable, and contribute to the wider image of instability. At the bottom of the tower the ink thickens, drawing attention to the material quality of the medium itself. The work reminds me of Philip Guston, another artist who was able to balance the graphic with the painterly to create powerfully emotive images. Like Guston, Kavsan leaves us with more questions than answers.