Moscow. Introduction. Picture from the magazine Vampire 1906

Boris Kustodiev made this picture, Moscow. Introduction. Picture from the magazine Vampire, with what looks like ink or paint, maybe even printed. The bold, almost lurid, color palette – that overwhelming red – feels raw and urgent, clashing with the stark, skeletal figure looming over the city. I can almost feel the scratch of the pen, or brush, creating those jagged lines. It's artmaking laid bare, process as statement. Look at the way the red bleeds into the snow, the sky, even the bones. It's not just a color; it's a fever, a stain. And that skeleton, so crisply rendered against the chaos, it's like Kustodiev is holding up a mirror to society, showing us the bones beneath the surface. Think of Goya's disasters of war or even some of Otto Dix's work. Art isn't always pretty, sometimes it screams.