Female image 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this female image with what looks like a graphite pencil on paper. Imagine Havrylenko making the drawing, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. What was he thinking when he made it? What did he see? The surface is a grey-white and the marks build up an image of a woman with short hair, a straight nose, and a calm but somehow sorrowful expression. The pencil strokes around the outside of the head look almost woven. Gestural marks – hatches, and cross-hatches of varying degrees of intensity – communicate feeling and intention. Havrylenko is in conversation with other portraitists like Kathe Kollwitz. Artists look at each other's work and they are forever inspiring one another’s creativity across time. This drawing feels like embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.