Female image 1975

This striking image of a woman by Hryhorii Havrylenko is rendered with a delicate and expressive quality. Look closely at the marks he makes with his pen, building volume with hatching that reminds me of the drawings of Käthe Kollwitz. I can imagine Havrylenko, like many artists, using the simple materials around him to express the essence of what he sees. What was he thinking when he made this? There’s an honesty in the way he hasn’t belabored the image, allowing the woman’s expression and form to emerge intuitively. Notice how the contrast between the dark lines and the white space gives the portrait its depth, suggesting shadows, light, and even the texture of her hair. It's like he's had a conversation with the paper, each stroke a response to the last, capturing her likeness and perhaps something more – a mood, a memory, a fleeting emotion. And in doing so, Havrylenko continues the age-old dialogue between artists, each line echoing the voices of those who came before, and whispering to those yet to come.