Still life with violin 1916

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this drawing of a still life with violin with what looks like a graphite stick or crayon. It's all about the process of looking, right? And then trying to capture something, not just copy it. It’s very sketchy, with lines shooting every which way, like he’s trying to nail down the energy of the objects, not just their shapes. You can see the pressure he applied with the stick, making some lines darker and thicker, giving the whole thing a real sense of depth, like he’s feeling his way through the forms. Look at how he’s drawn the shapes. Not so much as they are, but what they do. How the violin nestles against the Haydn score. It reminds me of Picasso and Braque, how they broke things apart to show you everything at once. Konchalovsky reminds us that art isn't about perfect representation, it’s about how we see and feel the world. It’s about the messy, beautiful process of trying to make sense of it all.