Composition. A sketch of the female image 1963

This is Hryhorii Havrylenko’s “Composition. A sketch of the female image”, and it was made with paint and pencil on paper. It's all about process. You can see the pentimenti and corrections. I love how Havrylenko blocks out the composition with these bold, almost geometric shapes of green, blue, and brown, which creates a visual rhythm that your eye just wants to dance to. The texture is smooth, the paint laid down with a kind of confident simplicity. Look closely, and you'll spot the ghost of the female form he’s chasing with his pencil. It's like he’s inviting us into his studio, to witness the messy, beautiful act of creation itself. It reminds me of Guston, but with a Slavic twist. Like Philip, Havrylenko isn't trying to give us answers. He's showing us how he asks questions. It’s a reminder that art is less about the final product and more about the journey, the conversation, the endless possibilities of what could be.