When the men see figures in the distance, who do they think it is?
In the story the interlopers

wo Exhibitions Respond to Art in the Age of Anxiety and Distance ... His show, “Untitled Anxious Red Drawings,” revisits his “Anxious Men” figures ... We are at a time in the world where I think we can actually say we are seeing ... To have somebody see you in the act of making something,

Explanation:

they think the figures are men coming to save them, but they turn out to be wolves