Leningrad. Bank Bridge. 1931

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this drawing, Leningrad. Bank Bridge., with pencil. I just love how Konchalovsky's marks are all exposed, like he’s thinking through the image with the pencil, allowing the viewer to feel the process of its making. The texture is everything here, like the surface of the paper is another character in the scene. There’s a real physicality to it, and you can almost feel the pressure of the pencil on the page. Look at the marks that make up the buildings - they aren’t precise, but they perfectly capture the weight and grandeur of the architecture. It’s like he’s not just drawing a building, but also trying to capture the feeling of being in that city, the weight of its history. It reminds me a bit of the early sketches of Picasso, where you can see the artist grappling with form and space, figuring things out as they go along. I always think that art is an ongoing conversation, a sort of relay race across time.