Praying Woman 1912

Kazimir Malevich made this drawing of a praying woman with what looks like graphite on paper. You can see the marks, the pressure he used, the way the lines build up to create tone. That's the process right there, laid bare. Look at the way he’s modeled the form. It’s all about shading, isn't it? Notice the contrast between the dark shadow on one side of her face and the lighter area on the other. It gives her a sense of depth, of being caught in a particular light, almost like a Caravaggio. And her hand there, propping up her head – each finger is so carefully rendered, it's like he's trying to get at the essence of this woman, not just her appearance. I think about other artists who have worked with such directness, like Käthe Kollwitz, who used charcoal to express powerful emotions. Malevich, of course, went on to explore pure abstraction. But here, in this drawing, you see him grappling with representation, with capturing something real and human on the page.