Female image 1975

This line drawing of a female image was made by Hryhorii Havrylenko. Look at the way he approaches mark making here, with the most minimal, economic line. You can almost see his hand move, feel the pressure on the pen, as he searches for the form. There is a tentative quality to the image, the sense of someone working something out as they go. The image is all line and ground, positive and negative. The texture of the paper is visible through the strokes, giving the image a delicate, almost ephemeral quality. The lines coalesce to suggest the soft curves of the cheek and chin, the set of the eyes, the pursing of the lips. The effect is so evocative. I'm reminded of Matisse's line drawings, that same sense of capturing a likeness with the least possible means, of making something from almost nothing. There is a dialogue across time, a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation.