The Fourth 'Book of Schemes'. Album #1, the Third Folder 1978

This is a page from Valerii Lamakh’s 'Book of Schemes,' featuring six studies in ink and pencil. Just look at the precision, the care. Lamakh draws black horizontal lines within a circle, and then experiments with their arrangement, direction and movement. He creates a feeling of flow. You can almost see him, his brow furrowed in concentration as he meticulously places each mark, each form, each calculated move. In the bottom right, the circle is abandoned for a square grid of crosses. It makes me think about the connection between language and abstraction, how we use simple marks to communicate complex ideas, and how artists, like Lamakh, play with these forms to uncover new ways of seeing and understanding. I am reminded of Hilma af Klint. Like her, Lamakh shares a desire to map and chart the world, connecting the cosmos to the minute. It’s like they are speaking to each other across time and space, don’t you think?