Female image 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this drawing of a female image with what looks like graphite pencil on paper. The marks are so simple, so sure. It's like the artist is thinking aloud. I love how you can see the process, the build-up of the lines, especially in the hair. It’s not about erasing or hiding the work; it's about letting it show. You get a sense of the hand, the pressure of the pencil, the artist making decisions in real-time. Look at the shading around the neck and shoulder – it's almost diagrammatic, but it gives the figure weight, presence. It reminds me of some of Agnes Martin's drawings, but with a softer edge. It’s this open-ended, searching quality, a reminder that art isn't about answers; it's about the questions we ask along the way.