Woman with a necklace 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this line drawing of a woman with ink on paper. Havrylenko worked in the Soviet Union during the 20th century. The Soviet Union was concerned with the image it projected to the world and deployed art as propaganda, promoting the achievements of the state. How do we understand Havrylenko’s drawing within this context? The woman is wearing jewelry. It is a simple drawing, almost like a fashion sketch, but it is unlikely to have been intended for public display, given the restrictions on artistic expression at that time. Perhaps it was a personal study, or something more subversive. To explore this work further, we might research the status of women and the availability of consumer goods in the Soviet Union at the time it was made. This will help us to understand how the drawing might comment on Soviet social structures.