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

This is a pen drawing called ‘Female Image’ by Hryhorii Havrylenko, part of his series, ‘Search for Pushkin’s Female Images.’ It's all about the process, isn't it? You can see the hand working, the way the lines build up this woman, and the way those lines make a kind of shimmering, cross-hatched space around her. The texture is so important here. I find my eye darting from the delicate hatching on her face to the bolder lines of her dress. The background looks like it could go on forever. The whole image is built from this simple mark, repeated and layered. Look closely and you see how the direction and density of these lines create light and shadow. It’s almost like a conversation, the artist thinking aloud with his pen. This makes me think of Agnes Martin, with her own meditative grids. Both show us that art doesn't need to shout, sometimes it whispers. It reminds us that there is no final word, only a continuous exchange of ideas.