Prince 1994

Vasiliy Ryabchenko created "Prince," and it looks like they used pencils or charcoal to make it. What grabs me first is the surface—you can practically feel the give of the paper, can't you? It's almost like the drawing is breathing. Ryabchenko coaxes so much from this limited palette, mostly shades of grey, really letting the texture do the talking. I'm drawn to the almost brutal mark-making in the shadows, where the charcoal seems to have been scrubbed into the surface. This contrasts with the lighter, ghostly figures, like they’re fading away, or materialising into being. Look at that figure, slumped on the rug, almost disappearing into the fibers. The whole thing feels like a half-remembered dream. I wonder if Ryabchenko was looking at the work of someone like Goya when they made this. It has that same haunting quality, that sense of unease and ambiguity that makes you want to look closer, even when you're not sure what you're seeing. For me, a piece like this invites all sorts of possibilities.