Untitled 1945

This untitled graphite drawing was made by Kukryniksy sometime between 1924 and 1957, and you can really sense the artist feeling their way around the image with their pencil. The texture of the paper is evident in the strokes of the graphite. See the way the shading is applied to the sunglasses, in hatched lines? It is not about creating a realistic impression, it’s about playing with marks. It's a quick, decisive, yet tentative process - that funny hair is like a scribble. It captures something in the essence of this figure, a sort of wary watchfulness, maybe. The drawing reminds me a little of some of Philip Guston’s later, more cartoonish works, even though the styles and subjects are very different. Both artists share a sense of freedom in their lines, embracing the imperfect and finding beauty in the raw, unpolished mark. For me, this piece celebrates the open-endedness of art and its capacity to reflect the world back to us in unexpected ways.