Sitting woman 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this portrait of a seated woman, using what looks like a fine liner pen, sometime before 1984. I imagine him creating a site of inquiry, figuring out how to describe the forms of the body with so few lines. What must it have been like to make such a tender portrait? You have to really look to get all of that information down. He must have noticed the way light and shadow fell across her body, the quiet dignity of her pose, and tried to find a graphic equivalent. I wonder if she knew she was being scrutinised like that? The hatching defines the space around her head and shoulders; it pushes her forward. I love the economy of the line, here and there a single stroke defines a contour, just enough to suggest the roundness of a knee or the curve of an arm. It reminds me of Matisse, and yet it feels so grounded in its own time and place. It shows us that the conversation between artists never ends.