Female image. Based on medieval art 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this drawing of a female image using ink on paper. The sparse lines and minimal shading evoke a sense of medieval art. I can imagine him, perhaps late at night, with a single lamp illuminating his workspace. His hand moves swiftly across the page, each line a confident stroke. This woman’s gentle smile seems to emerge organically from the paper. The lines are delicate but firm, capturing her essence with incredible economy. You know, there's a kind of bravery in such simplicity. It reminds me of some of Matisse’s line drawings – that same pursuit of capturing the essence of a form with the fewest possible marks. Artists are constantly in conversation with each other across time, aren’t they? Each one building on, and responding to, those who came before.