Round #3 c. 1935 - 1943

Alex Monastersky made this drawing, Round #3, and you can see he’s been hatching away with a pencil, building up a real sense of drama in the boxing ring. I bet Monastersky watched a lot of fights, soaking in the atmosphere, the intensity. The way he’s packed the crowd in, you can almost hear the shouts and feel the sweat in the air. Look at the boxer on the left, he’s screaming, and the other one is trying to protect himself. There is a real sense of movement. What I love about Monastersky's drawings is how he captures these fleeting moments, freezing them in time, and giving us a glimpse into a world that’s both brutal and beautiful. It's like he’s saying, ‘Hey, look at this! This is life, raw and unfiltered.’ And it’s up to us to make sense of it all.