Boys (playing boys). 1911

Its unbelievable how perverted someone can be!

Why do you equate nudity with perversion? The artist depicted the ordinary lives of young boys at that time, for whom it was simply childish play and nothing more, without any hidden meanings.

In reality, the painting is a masterpiece and quite tragic.
At first glance, if you dont think about the meaning and plot, or pay attention to the year, it simply depicts two boys around 12 years old playing or engaging in some kind of athletic activity. Its ordinary childhood, then and now.
But then a deeper association comes to mind – one of them is holding something in their hand, and the viewer tries to understand what it is. An allegory of Cain and Abel comes to mind, along with other archetypal things that I wont go into detail about here.
The boy on the right seems to be covering his head from a blow, defending himself from an attack, while the lighter-skinned and thinner one simultaneously attacks him and, at the same time, seems to hold him back from falling. But looking at the details, you see that his hand is clenched into a fist.
The idea is that the viewer tries to solve a mystery – are these children playing, or is it actually an attempt at murder, or something else? They start analyzing the boys poses and notice that the curly-haired and dark-skinned boys feet are on a different plane; he seems to be pushing off and falling at the same time. And in the light-haired boys hands is a piece of earth, and the shape of the earth they are standing on resembles, say, a map.
This refers to Amundsen and Scotts conquest of the South Pole. Its no coincidence that the dark-haired boy is physically more developed, at least his legs are.
Perhaps the idea is also that by trying to solve the meaning, the viewer – whether its an ordinary childrens rest or a sharp conflict – tries, for example, to stand in such poses themselves. It requires quite a lot of muscle strain, and the intensity of the tension is shown in red on their bodies.
So, theres no mention of any relaxed pose; look at their faces. The light-haired boys face looks like the figure in *The Motherland Calls*, this is not a childs face.

In general, the artist shows the futuristic nature of humanity – two naked boys in a tense dialogue with each other rise above the planet and can be said to transcend even the cosmos.
And the slightly ambiguous and contradictory plot, like a tragic story about travelers – especially if the viewer is familiar with the details, dirt, and accusations of other similar expeditions, such as cannibalism and infection of local populations – is not chosen by chance. Then *Two Captains* might come to mind.

One can also see in this something reminiscent of *yin and yang*. The purity of the aspirations of outstanding explorers is always mixed with the material side of life, in the form that one must compromise with others to obtain funds and resources for carrying out their absolutely pure and innocent goals. The material aspect of achievement and concern for it outweighs the main thing – happiness and value in the unity of bright aspirations towards a goal and the process itself, full of tension. The feat of effort and tension should not be spoiled by baseness. If these boys were constantly immersed in material worries, they would not be able to exert themselves so much for some goal.

*The bare result is a corpse,* leaving behind aspirations and growth, and no one will be interested in either doubts or the desires that elevate us above mundane everyday life anymore.
*Because the essence of things is not exhausted by their goal, but by their realization.*
Boys are interested in the process, not the result; overcoming difficulties, making decisions, not a state of eternal stagnation. In these poses, almost all the muscles of the body are tense; the artist wanted to show the very essence – tension, struggle. They have nothing but the hand of a friend, the only thing that keeps him from falling, and the second has nothing but a piece of earth in his hand.
(Which he also clenches with such maximum force that you can see how much the part of the palm is swollen and strained; try to do this yourself and you will understand what I am talking about.)
The achievement, the miracle – its all in the process itself.
For some reason, this personally reminds me of Bukreev and Fischer.
Competition and the desire to be first, to possess at least that, leads to madness and obsession.
When a boy expresses his magical desires, he also becomes vulnerable – the risk of a dream being trampled, mixed with dirt, mixed with the grime of the material world.