Female Image. From the series 'Search for Pushkin's Female Images' 1970

This drawing of a female image is from Hryhorii Havrylenko's series 'Search for Pushkin's Female Images'. It's a study in line, isn't it? You can see the pen strokes working to define this woman's features. There is a vulnerability in the hatching, as if the artist were unsure of the subject, or perhaps himself. I wonder how many attempts it took to render her so, and I bet each one was a meditation on beauty, form, and maybe even longing. It reminds me of the Old Master drawings I’d look at in museums, where every mark counts. It makes me think about the role of drawing in an artist’s practice, that the act of observing is in itself an inquiry. Artists, you know, are always looking, always learning from one another, reaching back in time, and building on what came before.