Death of the Man on the Airplane and on the Train at the Same Time. Illustration for 1913

Curator: My goodness, this charcoal drawing just pulsates with anxiety, doesn't it? Editor: Indeed. We are looking at Kazimir Malevich's 1913 drawing, “Death of the Man on the Airplane and on the Train at the Same Time. Illustration for…” Curator: “Illustration for…” Oh, the suspense! What a mouthful of a title. But all I feel is a sense of total fragmentation. It is like the world itself is shattering. I feel dizzy just looking at all those lines shooting off every which way. Editor: Precisely. Malevich harnesses the stark linearity of charcoal to depict a world fractured by modernity. Note the fragmented geometric shapes: triangles, quadrilaterals, all jostling against one another. These shapes, along with the linear network that they constitute, serve as a powerful visual metaphor for the disruptive force of technological progress, especially its impact on human experience. Curator: Disruption is an understatement. I'm pretty sure that dude had a REALLY bad day. He died both on an airplane AND a train… simultaneously! It is so bleak but it makes me giggle too. How over the top can one get? It's wonderfully dramatic! It really feels like you can see the machine and all its modern, scary glory taking someone down. Editor: It’s fascinating how Malevich merges the dynamism of Futurism with Cubist fragmentation here. The stark monochromatic palette reinforces the severity of the depicted event, eliminating any distraction caused by color. This work is all about structural force, existential crisis and it really shows how Malevich grapples with these notions via form. Curator: This makes you really think of just how much humans are able to endure, or even capable of bearing, when technology rushes forward leaving everything that makes us who we are destroyed. How heavy. And now all I want to do is run far away from my phone and maybe hug a tree. Editor: Well said. A somber note perhaps, but an important consideration in relation to Malevich's interrogation of modernity, here so acutely manifest in this singular image of combined devastation. Curator: True. The weight and the poetry both somehow resonate so very much, still today.