Composition 1982

Curator: Here we have Hryhorii Havrylenko’s "Composition," from 1982. It is currently held in a private collection. Editor: At first glance, I'm struck by its almost playful mood, despite the clear geometry. There is something soothing, perhaps deceptively simple, about the color choices and composition. Curator: The work, done with acrylic paint, very much speaks to the Pattern and Decoration movement. You see a repetitive, abstract pattern with very visible brushstrokes, bringing attention to the act of painting. It's really exploring the intersection of "high" art and "low" craft, blurring those conventional boundaries. Editor: It absolutely pulls from modernist principles but infuses it with an almost folk-art sensibility. What I find compelling is situating it within the political context of the early 1980s. Was the turn to abstraction and pattern a form of resistance, or a commentary on identity within that era? Curator: That’s a compelling question. From a materialist point of view, I am curious about how access to particular paints and support structures—the physical resources, really—shaped the final outcome. The visible hand of the artist makes this work accessible. There is an everydayness that allows a more democratized viewing experience. Editor: That everydayness invites us to engage not just visually, but to imagine the broader socio-political forces at play. Were these forms safe, perhaps subversive, means of expressing cultural identity, especially if read through post-colonial lenses or feminist aesthetics of the time? How do the labor practices relate to folk traditions, and in what ways do they respond to it? Curator: Considering those tensions between folk art and modernist ambition is central to understanding the work’s place in the art world. These artistic strategies allowed the artist to challenge ideas around value systems in art. Editor: Reflecting on this composition, it becomes evident that what seems simple contains multilayered engagements with art history, identity, and cultural critique. Curator: And through close attention to material choices, we find new ways to situate it within larger artistic developments, looking carefully at how it challenges our assumptions of how art is created and disseminated.