Untitled 1944

This untitled ink drawing by the group Kukryniksy feels so loaded. I see the weight of history bearing down on the artist as they sketched this scene, the lines urgent and direct. It looks like they are working through an idea, each stroke building upon the last. They start with the face – that caricature! – and then everything else falls into place around it. Imagine sitting with the three artists, shoulder to shoulder, as they debate the composition and adjust the details – how to show what they want to show! The dense crosshatching that they used creates a sense of depth, really making Hitler and the body in the coffin pop. The texture almost feels like it's pushing up off the page. It reminds me of some of Goya’s etchings – that same dark humour. You can feel that it comes from the artist, and their embodied emotion is a huge conversation across time. Artists speak to each other in visual language, sharing their inner worlds through paint and line.