Portrait of Maxim Gorky 1920

This is Jury Annenkov's portrait of Maxim Gorky, made in 1922, seemingly with ink, pencil, and gouache on paper. I'm intrigued by the scratchy marks, like he's digging into the surface of the paper to conjure Gorky’s face and those enigmatic symbols surrounding him. It's about art-making as a kind of active, searching process. Check out the way Annenkov uses contrasting colors, like the stark black ink against the vibrant red block behind Gorky. It's a bold statement, but what does it mean? I love the way the raw materiality of the ink and gouache – the way it sits on the surface of the paper – gives the image a sense of immediacy and presence. The ghostlike figures in the bottom left add another layer of intrigue. This piece reminds me of the work of Francis Picabia, who also embraced ambiguity and contradiction in his art, maybe art is one big conversation, everyone riffing on each other’s ideas across time.