Guitarist. A Sketch. 1913

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this drawing, Guitarist. A Sketch., with what looks like charcoal or pencil. I love how the lines are so direct and raw, capturing a moment, a feeling, without getting bogged down in detail. It reminds me that art is often about the process, about finding a way to let marks accumulate and build an image, rather than trying to replicate something perfectly. There's something so immediate about the way he’s captured the guitarist's concentration. The dark lines around the eyes and mouth really draw you in. Look at the hatching marks that make up the shadows in the suit. They’re so simple, but they give the whole figure weight and form. This piece feels like a cousin to some of Picasso’s early cubist works, where he's also playing with breaking down forms and looking at things from multiple angles at once. It’s like Konchalovsky is inviting us to see the world as a collection of lines and shapes, always in motion, always open to interpretation.