Illustration to Aleksander Blok's poem 'The Twelve' 1918

Jury Annenkov made this illustration to Aleksander Blok's poem 'The Twelve' using ink and paper, and it's a high contrast jumble of forms. The figure is like a dark shadow looming over the scene. Look how the shapes are so stark, they almost look like they have been cut out with scissors and pasted to the surface, giving a sense of immediacy and urgency. I wonder what Annenkov was thinking when he made this? Was he trying to capture the feeling of revolution, the chaos and the uncertainty of that time? Perhaps he was channeling those avant-garde artists who were forging a new visual language. It reminds me a little of some of the Constructivists and their pared-down visual vocabulary. The rough, almost crude lines that create the buildings and the figures, have this raw energy, capturing a fleeting moment in time, a snapshot of a world in flux. Artists are always in dialogue, in conversation across time. Each work builds on what came before, and inspires what comes next. It's like a chain reaction of creativity.