The Fourth 'Book of Schemes'. Album #2, the First Folder 1978

Valerii Lamakh made this drawing, 'The Fourth "Book of Schemes"', with coloured pencils, and you can tell he's thinking about the basic stuff - lines, shapes, and the way they fit together. The colors are pretty straightforward: green, yellow, blue, pink, and red, used to make a complex geometric figure. It's not about illusionism or depth; it's more like a diagram or a map. Look closely, and you'll see that the lines aren't perfectly straight. It's not mechanical; there's a human quality to it. That wobble gives it a pulse, a sense of life, like the artist is thinking and feeling as he draws. The build-up of lines and colours in the centre brings the work into focus, but as a whole, this piece has a lightness of touch, and a free-flowing movement that stops it from feeling too rigid. I’m reminded of Hilma af Klint’s diagrammatic paintings that play with geometry and abstraction, but, in contrast to Klint, Lamakh’s lines are playful and relaxed. It’s a reminder that art is always in conversation, artists responding to each other across time and space.