Female image 1975

Curator: Looking at this intriguing pencil drawing by Hryhorii Havrylenko, titled "Female Image," made in 1975, I am immediately struck by the sitter’s gaze. Editor: There’s a distinct directness there, isn’t there? Almost unsettling, but definitely magnetic. The simplicity of the pencil work contrasts so strikingly with that potent look. Curator: It's remarkable how such economical use of lines conveys so much. The cross-hatching technique provides form, but it is the intensity in her eyes and the very slight upturn to her lips that convey her attitude, one almost seems defiant to a gaze that would seek to label or underestimate her. Editor: The gaze itself carries the weight of centuries, almost timeless. Don't you see, through the sharp angles, an echo of the traditional madonna icon, transposed onto the face of an anonymous 20th-century woman? A new mythology, perhaps? Curator: You know I adore when you do that! It is as if Havrylenko channeled that history—consciously or otherwise—into this work, giving his subject that touch of otherworldly power. It's more than a simple portrait, though. Editor: Absolutely. I think we, in the present, continue to see a lot in it, and perhaps even project something into that gaze. Havrylenko gives us a mirror and reminds us how much meaning the image of woman, real and ideal, holds in culture to this day. Curator: In a very elemental sense this portrait does that—like some powerful talisman. Editor: Ultimately, it leaves us wondering about the woman herself and her internal world—a little haunting, a little thought-provoking, altogether captivating.