The Tale of Igor's Campaign 1978

Georgyi Yakutovytch made this artwork, called 'The Tale of Igor's Campaign' using a monochromatic palette and meticulous mark-making. It is easy to imagine him etching this piece slowly, with a great deal of care. Look at the left panel: a bird of prey looms over a teeming mass of bodies. The textures are intense, created through fine, dense lines, almost like a field of dark energy. The process feels visible, raw. In contrast, the panel on the right shows a knight and steed, rendered with sweeping lines that create a sense of movement. That the two panels are connected horizontally makes the work into a cinematic image, a single scene split into two parts. The tension in the piece comes, I think, from this dialogue between static frenzy and dynamic action. It reminds me of Käthe Kollwitz, who managed to make graphic works that appear both forceful and sensitive. It's never just one thing, right?