A scene from the drama of Leonid Andreev Anathema 1909

This drawing by Kazimir Malevich is from a scene from the drama of Leonid Andreev, Anathema, its lines scratched into being, a dark, brooding vision slowly emerging into the light. I imagine Malevich hunched over this scene, letting the narrative unfold through dense networks of lines. The figures stand in a landscape of jagged rocks. Their faces are ghostlike and ghoulish. It makes me think of Goya's visions of the dark side of humanity. In the swirling sky, those marks are the key to everything: Malevich, with the restless energy of a seer, conjuring the unseen. It shows painting as an act of revelation. This piece feels linked to his wider exploration of spirituality and abstraction, but also to the Symbolist movement that sought to visualize inner psychological states through expressive forms. Just like later abstract painters, Malevich helps me see art as an embodied encounter, shaped by emotion and imagination.