Composition 1980

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this watercolor painting, called Composition, sometime in the mid-20th century, and what strikes me is the way that simple marks can turn into something pretty complex. The painting is all about these blobby, gem-like shapes—red, blue, green, purple—scattered across the surface. You can see the brushstrokes, how he layered the colors, letting them bleed and mingle. Look closely at one of those larger, blue rectangles: see how the edges aren’t quite sharp, but kind of dissolve into the paper? It’s like he’s inviting the colors to have a conversation. There’s a real looseness here, a sense of play. It reminds me a bit of some of the early abstract painters, like Kandinsky, who were also trying to find a visual language for emotions, but with a more folk-art sensibility. It’s like a visual poem that doesn’t try to spell everything out, leaving room for our own feelings and associations.