Female image. Preparatory drawing for Dante's illustration 1975

Curator: We are looking at “Female image. Preparatory drawing for Dante's illustration” by Hryhorii Havrylenko, completed in 1975. It's currently held in a private collection. Editor: My initial reaction? Stark and haunting. It’s all ink lines, but the woman's expression, coupled with those abstract shapes in the background—it feels like a premonition. A very stylish one, I might add. Curator: Indeed. The linework, though seemingly simple, echoes classical figure drawing, recalling older ideas of ideal form even as the setting itself drifts towards the surreal. The piece seems to exist in conversation with both artistic canons and psychological spaces. Do you see those heavy lines as representing symbolic weights or emotional burdens? Editor: Burdens, definitely. Especially around the shoulders, it's as if the very air is pressing in on her. The hatch marks across the body make it seem almost like the skin itself is etched with memories, a physical record of suffering. I read it as the beginning of grief, of a journey through Dante's circles of hell. She hasn't arrived, but she knows. Curator: It’s tempting to assign a symbolic significance to the horizon line created by layered hatchmarks. Havrylenko positions the woman in front of this visual barrier almost like she's at a crossroads. One could almost say she is peering at an edge between worlds. Editor: Perhaps a reflection of Dante’s own position as a poet caught between earthly and divine realms. Even just the material choice of ink suggests a permanence, doesn't it? A decision, an inescapable path forward. But those raw, skeletal forms lurking in the background… they remind me less of heaven or hell, more like the phantasms in one’s subconscious that arise when faced with painful acceptance. Curator: The cultural continuity of those psychological representations are certainly compelling. Havrylenko uses a blend of realism and expressionism. Editor: A journey worth unpacking, for sure. Curator: A journey captured so powerfully by a few lines on paper.