Dancers c. 1936 - 1942

Alex Monastersky made "Dancers", sometime before 1964, using monochrome drawing techniques. I like to think of artmaking as a conversation, and here it seems Monastersky is really having a back and forth with the paper, mark by mark. The texture! Look how he builds up the values using tiny, deliberate strokes; it’s like he’s whispering secrets onto the page. See how the light seems to ripple across the figures, making them almost float? It's like he's captured a fleeting moment, a memory of a dance rather than the dance itself. My eye keeps going to the saxophonist in the foreground, he's the most solid form, but even he is composed of these delicate touches. It reminds me of some of those early twentieth century social realist painters, but with a kind of dreamlike quality. It’s not about perfection or capturing reality, but about feeling, the movement, and the energy of the moment.