Female image 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this "Female Image" with colored pencil on paper. It’s a bit like a whisper of a portrait, isn't it? The cool blues and reds that Havrylenko uses to model the face are built up of many small strokes, almost like the hatching in an old master drawing. This is not a likeness in the traditional sense, but rather an echo of someone, an attempt to evoke a presence through a sort of abstracting process. It’s very intimate. The marks themselves are quite dry and the paper seems to have a bit of tooth. You can see the texture coming through. It reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin's work in its quiet simplicity. The overall effect is delicate, almost melancholic, inviting us to contemplate the fragile nature of memory and representation.