Pater-devil 1912

Nicholas Roerich made this small drawing, Pater-devil, with crayon or perhaps watercolor. Look at the way Roerich built up the image with lots of tiny hatched lines, that look almost like lots of tiny hairs, giving texture to the whole image. The Pater-devil figure feels so alive, and also brittle, like a dried flower. The devil's tongue seems almost like it’s writing too, echoing the pen in its hand. This feeling of everything writing – the hand, the tongue, even the lines of the drawing itself – brings everything to life. The drawing itself is the thought process, and the form becomes the content. I can’t help but think about Alfred Jarry’s drawings of Ubu when I see this. The crude, bold lines, and the grotesque subject matter seem to echo Jarry's interest in the absurd. Both artists seem to embrace ambiguity, inviting us to find our own meanings in their work.