Female Image. From the series 'Search for Pushkin's Female Images' 1970

Hryhorii Havrylenko drew this 'Female Image' with ink as part of his series 'Search for Pushkin's Female Images'. You can almost see Havrylenko building the image up, line by painstaking line. It reminds me of my own process, sometimes. The cross-hatching in the background creates a field of dark and light, from which the woman emerges. Just imagine the patience it took to make all those little lines, the world falling away as the artist built it up. I wonder if he knew something of Pushkin's life, to try to capture his ideal woman? Maybe she wasn't real, just a phantom he was chasing with his pen. It’s as if Havrylenko is asking: what does it mean to be an artist searching for beauty, for a woman who might only exist in the imagination?