Female image 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this drawing of a woman with what looks like a confident line. I imagine him, almost there in the room with him, holding a thin brush or maybe a pen, his hand moving swiftly, capturing her essence in just a few strokes. Look how the line dances around her face, suggesting form without being too precise. It’s like he’s tracing the very idea of her. I love the simplicity of the drawing, the way it manages to convey so much with so little. You can see the influence of Matisse, can’t you? That same love for the expressive power of line. It’s as if Havrylenko is in conversation with the great masters, taking their ideas and making them his own. And that’s what art is all about, isn’t it? An ongoing dialogue, a constant exchange of ideas across time.