Female image 1975

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this drawing, Female Image, with what looks like ink on paper. It’s all graceful contour lines, all flowing, like he barely lifted the pen. I imagine Havrylenko was probably in the zone, maybe a little obsessed, because there’s a real confidence in those lines, especially around the eyes and mouth. It reminds me a bit of Matisse, with a touch of Modigliani’s elongated faces. There’s something so direct and immediate about line drawings, right? The simplicity reveals everything. Look at how the subtle curve of her shoulder hints at the rest of her body, or how the barest suggestion of her cheekbones gives her face dimension. What was she thinking? What was he? It’s like they’re both suspended in this silent, shared moment of creation. These artists, they’re all in conversation with each other, you know? Passing ideas back and forth across time. I think of line as a form of embodied expression, a quest, a way of finding out.