Drowned 1929

Mikuláš Galanda made this drawing of a drowned woman and some fish with ink on paper, and it has this haunting simplicity. The way Galanda uses the ink is so direct, almost like he’s carving the image out of the paper. I keep coming back to the woman’s hair, a dark, almost abstract shape that anchors the composition. There’s something about the contrast between the flowing lines of the hair and the stark outline of her body that’s really striking. And those fish, with their wide, staring eyes, add this eerie, surreal quality to the scene. It’s like they’re witnesses to a tragedy, or maybe they’re part of the tragedy itself. Galanda reminds me of other artists who play with line and form to create these emotionally charged images, like Paula Modersohn-Becker, but his work has this unique, almost melancholic edge that’s all his own. It makes you realize that art isn’t about answers, it’s about opening up these spaces for us to feel and think and question.