Illustration to the Book "Legacy" by M. Bazhan 1978

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this illustration to the Book "Legacy" with ink and paper. What do you think he was thinking when he decided to divide the image into four squares like this? I'm looking at the dark, graphic silhouettes, and the way he has used the flat blocks of blue, black and red. It feels symbolic, but also a memory. A memory of a place, a feeling, a political moment, a dream, a story. I wonder what it was like for Havrylenko to make this, in Kyiv, Ukraine? How does the process of making an illustration speak to the stories of a nation? I love to think about how paintings like this one speak to other paintings and illustrations across time and place. It reminds me that art-making is really just an ongoing conversation.