Nine Sketches to Compositions 1970

Hryhorii Havrylenko made these ‘Nine Sketches to Compositions’ using ink, or maybe a marker, on paper. It’s a real study in mark-making, this piece, and you get the sense that Havrylenko was totally absorbed in the process. The texture is all in the lines, you know? Thin, thick, scratchy, smooth – they're all there, doing different jobs. Some are quick and gestural, others are more careful and deliberate. Look at the top left, the way he builds up the forms with these frantic, almost scribbled lines. It’s like he’s trying to capture a fleeting moment, or a half-formed thought. Then, move to the bottom right. Single confident lines describing a vessel, or a body. The whole thing feels so immediate, so raw. It reminds me a bit of Picasso’s sketchbooks, the way he would just keep working and reworking the same ideas, pushing them in different directions. Art is always a conversation and an exchange of ideas. It's never about finding the 'right' answer, but about embracing the questions.