Nude 1975

This nude by Hryhorii Havrylenko is a simple drawing, probably in ink, and you can really see the artist working to capture the form. The lines are tentative, searching. It's all about the process. Look how the form is built with long, continuous lines. See the way the artist has come back to certain areas, redrawing the contour to find the right curve of the hip and thigh. There are no hard edges here, just soft transitions and subtle shifts in direction. I think you can sense the artist's hand moving across the page, feeling its way through the body's topography. The whole thing reminds me a little of Matisse, but with an earthier, more human quality. Ultimately, this is a drawing about seeing, thinking, and feeling, all at the same time. It’s a way of understanding the world that embraces uncertainty and ambiguity, and that values the process of discovery over any fixed or definitive meaning.