The Madness of Dmitri (Book III: The Sensualists, facing p.106) 1949

Fritz Eichenberg made this print to illustrate Dostoyevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ - all those triangles of tension, those moody greys. The pulling and pushing of the composition is so strong, it almost jumps off the page. I can feel how Eichenberg used the wood to carve the image, how he chipped away at the surface to create the darks and lights. Look how the figures pile on top of one another, their limbs entangled in a kind of desperate embrace. The faces are contorted with emotion, and the whole scene feels claustrophobic, suffocating. The man at the bottom covers his eyes, as if to block out the horror of what’s happening. I see my friend Dana Schutz in this, or maybe Leon Golub, artists who aren't afraid to show the ugliness of violence and despair, and to turn it into something powerful and unsettling. It’s a reminder that art doesn’t always have to be pretty; it can also be a way of confronting the darker aspects of the human condition.