Abstract composition 1963

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this drawing with ink on paper, but we don't know exactly when. Just look at the scratchy marks, like the artist was almost digging into the surface! The feeling I get is that he was caught up in the here and now, consumed with how to translate what he saw onto the page. Maybe he had a very specific image of a landscape, a memory of a place, or a city in his mind, and he made his marks in response to it. It is like automatic writing – letting the pen go where it wants. Look at how the marks shift in density and direction, creating different textures. In the middle of the image, a few blocks of vertical strokes form an almost solid mass. It’s a controlled chaos, you know? He might have been influenced by other graphic artists or printmakers of his time. Artists are always looking at each other, borrowing and riffing off ideas. It's like a visual language, a way of thinking and feeling through the act of drawing. It’s not about perfection; it's about the process.