"Untitled III" (1959) by Alexey Glebovich Smirnov, demonstrates the profound anxiety surrounding rapid industrialisation and its effects on human consciousness. An ink drawing created during the Khrushchev Thaw, Smirnov captures the paradoxical nature of progress during this period - a time when technological advancement promised liberation while simultaneously threatening traditional notions of human authenticity.

The composition centres on a strikingly fragmented portrait, executed with an almost mechanical precision that evokes technical drawings or circuit board designs. Smirnov constructs the elongated face through a series of sharp, geometric segments that fragment conventional human features into an array of interconnected planes. A tense hand grasps at the crown of the figure's head in a gesture of existential anguish, its angular fingers echoing the mechanistic treatment of the face while suggesting a desperate attempt to maintain human identity. The figure's asymmetrically placed eyes create a sense of psychological destabilisation, whilst the twisted posture suggests internal torment. Most remarkable is the artist's manipulation of line weight, alternating between rigid, technical strokes and more gestural marks that imply human presence beneath the mechanical exterior.

The drawing's conceptual power emerges from its masterful synthesis of mechanical precision and human anguish, reflecting the profound psychological tensions of Soviet life during the Khrushchev era. The fragmentation of the face into sharp, geometric segments creates a powerful metaphor for the increasing mechanisation of Soviet society, whilst the distorted features suggest a fractured consciousness - representing the split between public conformity and private despair that characterised daily life under Soviet state surveillance. The linear precision heightens the sense of psychological disturbance, serving to emphasise the figure's humanity, creating an unsettling tension between technological progress and authentic human experience.

Alexey Glebovich Smirnov (1937–2009) came from a family of established Russian artists but carved out his own distinct path. His education at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute laid the groundwork for his later experimentation, which often challenged the boundaries of Soviet artistic conventions. Smirnov participated in numerous exhibitions both in the Soviet Union and internationally, including the 1959 and 1961 Moscow exhibitions of young artists, as well as notable shows in Florence, Zurich, and Barcelona. His work is held in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and the Ludwig Museum in Cologne.