Untitled 2022

This untitled work is by Alevtyna Kakhidze. It's got these direct, childlike lines, like a page torn from a notebook, but it packs a punch. The colours are muted, with a few pops of blue and yellow—like the artist is using the bare minimum to convey a lot. I wonder what Kakhidze was thinking, her hand moving quickly, trying to capture something urgent. The figure, Alexander Krolikowski, stands framed by sharp architectural lines. There’s text, a narrative of some kind, maybe a news story or a personal account, rendered in looping script. It gives the image a sense of immediacy, like a report from the front lines. The simplicity of the drawing reminds me of outsider art, where raw emotion trumps technical skill. But it also feels deeply connected to a history of artists using drawing as a form of witness. Think of Goya’s “Disasters of War,” or even contemporary artists like Marlene Dumas, who use the fragility of the medium to confront difficult subjects. It's as though Kakhidze is saying, "Here, look at this, feel this, now what are you going to do?"