Untitled. Srawberry Andreevna 2017

Alevtyna Kakhidze made this drawing with pen or pencil, and maybe some colored pencil, on paper. It’s a simple scene, a flower stall maybe, and two figures rendered with the kind of directness you often see in folk art. I like the way she uses line here - scratchy, hesitant, but also confident. There's no attempt to hide the process; you can see the build-up, the searching for the right form. Look at the hands of the figures; they're like little scribbles, and yet they convey so much. And the flowers! Just a few strokes of color, but they pop against the pale ground of the paper. The ground itself is a key element - giving a sense of place and atmosphere. This piece reminds me a bit of outsider art, like the work of Henry Darger, in its unpretentious, almost childlike approach. But there’s also something very knowing here, a self-awareness that elevates it beyond naive art. Ultimately, it’s this tension between simplicity and sophistication that makes Kakhidze’s drawing so compelling.