The Fourth 'Book of Schemes'. Album #1, the Second Folder 1978

Valerii Lamakh created this mixed media drawing titled "The Fourth 'Book of Schemes'" at an undetermined date. The image contains a circle with a series of crosses, each encased in its own small circle, and linked by a subtle grey line. Lamakh was part of a generation of Ukrainian artists who navigated the complexities of creating art under Soviet rule. We might consider how the visual vocabulary in this drawing—the circle, the crosses, and the repeated patterns—could be interpreted as a coded response to the restrictive artistic environment of the time. During the Soviet era, artistic expression was often channeled into serving the state's ideological goals. Yet, artists like Lamakh found ways to express more ambiguous, personal, and spiritual meanings. The drawing could be seen as a kind of private symbolic language, an exploration of form and meaning that subtly subverts official expectations. Further research into the artistic and political climate of Ukraine during the Soviet era could reveal more about the context and potential interpretations of this intriguing piece.