Four Sketches to Compositions 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko made these "Four Sketches to Compositions," with ink on paper, but when exactly? Without a date we can only imagine the moment, the process of making itself. Look at the top sketch. It feels like the record of a search, a maze perhaps? Like the artist was working something out. Then, in the second sketch, what looks like animal figures emerge from the hatched ground. I’m interested in how the artist has constructed different ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing. It reminds me a little of Guston, or maybe Twombly’s scribbles. The mark-making is really evocative. A gesture, a line, can communicate feeling, intention, or meaning. I imagine him experimenting, inspired by other artists who came before him. Painting is an ongoing conversation, after all. This piece shows how artists inspire one another's creativity across time, embracing ambiguity and allowing for multiple interpretations.