Yesterday

A young man in a fur hat and jacket stands in the foreground cradling a carved wooden rifle. Behind him, a large mural of an athletic figure with raised arms covers the side of an apartment building; beyond, workers atop lift baskets prune a row of severely pollarded trees against a row of housing blocks and pale green sky.

Rendered mainly in gray graphite line and cross-hatching, the print is washed with a cool mint-green tint across the sky and mural, giving the whole scene a faded, dated feel. The contrast between the toy weapon, the propaganda-style mural, and the workaday scene of tree-trimming and housing blocks creates a wistful, contemplative mood, evoking a bygone Soviet-era street.