Composition 1963

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this painting, Composition, with what looks like oils or acrylics, at an unknown date. See how the brushstrokes are so present, like the painting is built from these little slabs of color. It feels so immediate. The texture is alive! Check out the upper left corner, where these strokes of red and blue and purple kinda crash into each other, forming this vibrant tension. The red feels like a scream, right? Havrylenko isn't trying to hide the process; in fact, he's flaunting it. This makes me think about how we construct meaning from chaos. Like, is this just a jumble of colors, or is there something deeper happening? Maybe it's both. Maybe the ambiguity is the point. Like a conversation with someone, the more you look, the more it speaks, but it never gives up all its secrets, like early Kandinsky, but with a Ukrainian soul.