The Tale of Igor's Campaign 1978

This monochromatic print by Georgyi Yakutovytch is a real departure from paint, isn’t it? But there's a similar joy in the mark-making, even without the colour. I can only imagine what it must have been like to render the image of a battle with such precision. What a technical and conceptual challenge! I mean, the left-hand side is basically a teeming mass of tiny figures; there is no hierarchy and the composition is so claustrophobic! The stark contrast between the dark and the light in the composition create this feeling of tension and drama. But this is not just dramatic in a visual sense. The artist is working with a text, ‘The Tale of Igor's Campaign’, so he's also translating a story, a narrative. This print is not an image in isolation, but part of a larger conversation.