Groep mensen wordt door soldaten gewelddadig weggeleid 1920

Mihály Biró made this drawing of soldiers violently leading away a group of people with pencil and crayon. The sombre palette and frantic mark-making really emphasise the chaos and brutality of the scene. I like the way that the marks are so visible and raw. The image is carried by this urgent, expressive handling of the materials. The dry, scratchy texture of the crayon really communicates a sense of violence. The marks are quick and jarring, the kind that come out when you’re drawing something awful that’s happening right in front of you. The contrast between the grey and black shading of the figures and the bare, pale paper creates a really stark and unsettling effect. Look at the upper right of the image, the way Biro has added the bare trees, with a hanged figure amongst them, as another visual element. It’s this kind of symbolic addition that reminds me of the work of Kathe Kollwitz, in how it highlights the relationship between image making and social justice. For me, art is at its best when it prompts us to engage with difficult questions.