Composition 1966

Editor: Here we have "Composition," a 1966 watercolor piece by Hryhorii Havrylenko, housed at the National Art Museum of Ukraine. It strikes me as… well, like a tranquil dream. All those soft greens and blues. What do you see in it? Curator: Tranquil dream, that's lovely! To me, it’s like looking at the memory of a landscape rather than a direct depiction. Notice how the colors aren't solid but bleed into each other, almost like a feeling fading at the edges. The vertical lines, do they remind you of trees, perhaps? Or maybe…columns of light? What do you think of that? Editor: I do see the trees! Or, at least, something tree-like. And the fading feeling definitely comes through. But light…hmmm, interesting. I was so caught up in the colors themselves, I hadn’t thought about light. Curator: Exactly! Watercolor has this incredible ability to capture the ethereal. And look at how the shapes, though seemingly random, create a balanced composition. The cool colors dominate, yet there’s warmth there, too. The whole is a dance of spontaneity and control. It’s evocative of the Ukrainian landscape and the artist's spiritual connection with it. Do you feel a connection? Editor: I definitely see that connection to the landscape. I think I get a better sense of the control, as you say, than the spontaneity…maybe it’s a little of both. Curator: Always! It's precisely the tension between those opposing forces that makes the piece so captivating, isn't it? What will you remember from it? Editor: I think the whole dream landscape vibe, and how you spotted the warmth in it. Made me really see it in a new way. Curator: Wonderful, for me it is thinking how colors blur lines to memory!