Crucifixion

Technique: Etching, drypoint.
Size: 27 × 19 cm.
Expertise: Initials in the left corner.

This sheet belongs to the theme of the crucifixion – one of the recurring cycles in the work of Ernst Neizvestny, which he pursued in parallel in both sculpture and graphic art. The artist understood the image of the cross broadly: for him it stood not so much for the crucified Christ as for crucified humanity. In his oeuvre, works on paper were not preparatory material for sculpture but developed the same theme in their own right. This etching with drypoint dates from his early Moscow period, when turning to religious subjects lay outside the bounds of official Soviet art.