Figure 1963

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this painting, entitled 'Figure', on paper, but we're not exactly sure when. It looks like it happened pretty fast though! You can tell from the way the watercolor pools and drips. The figure is suggested through a series of bright, energetic marks. Red, yellow, blue and green all feature in the composition. I find it interesting that the ground appears to be made up of the same colours as the figure, sort of creating a strange union. To me, this choice speaks to the artificiality of the divide between figure and ground in painting. It is hard to say exactly who Havrylenko might have been looking at, but I wonder if he knew the work of Gabriele Münter? They both share a love of colour and a similar attitude to the act of image making. As artists, we are always in conversation with one another, across time and space. The conversation is never over!