Female Image. From the series 'Search for Pushkin's Female Images' 1970

This ‘Female Image’, from the series ‘Search for Pushkin's Female Images’ by Hryhorii Havrylenko, is an ink drawing in a private collection, and look at that mark-making! You can almost feel the artist, pen in hand, carefully building up the image line by line, hatching and cross-hatching to create tone and shadow. I wonder what Havrylenko was thinking about as he made this, searching for Pushkin's female images. There's a sense of searching, of something being revealed slowly, carefully. It's not about a perfect likeness but about capturing something deeper, an essence. The way he builds up the shadow behind the figure feels really considered and adds a depth to the image. All artists participate in an ongoing conversation, inspiring and challenging one another. I look at this and think about the power of simple means to communicate complex ideas, and how this one drawing might encourage us to pause, reflect, and look inward.