Female (Pushkin) image 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko’s ‘Female (Pushkin) image' is an ink drawing of a woman’s portrait that offers a study in line and form. The woman gazes slightly off to the side, her expression thoughtful. Notice how Havrylenko employs hatching to model the forms and create shadows around the woman’s face and head. The strategic use of closely spaced parallel lines builds up areas of shadow and volume, giving depth to the figure against the stark white background. The density of these lines varies, allowing the artist to control the tonal range and suggest the fall of light across the subject’s features. The simplicity and directness of the medium focus attention on the essential elements of portraiture, such as line and form. The effect of this method destabilizes established meanings and invites a contemplative mood. The drawing is an exploration of the relationship between line, shadow, and form, presenting the viewer with a distilled representation of the human figure.