The image of the Girl (in Nature) 1965

Here we see Hryhorii Havrylenko's painting of a girl in a landscape, likely created with oil on canvas. The overall composition is striking in its simplification. Broad planes of color define the figure and the natural backdrop, creating a sense of stillness. Notice how Havrylenko uses color to delineate form, moving away from traditional modeling, instead using color to suggest the shapes and volumes. The reduction of detail and flattening of perspective contribute to the artwork’s modernist aesthetic, echoing the concerns of early 20th-century abstraction. The girl’s figure, rendered in simplified blocks, becomes almost an arrangement of geometric forms, a semiotic system where lines, colors, and shapes replace conventional representation. This artwork's power lies in its formal structure – the balance of color, the starkness of line. It challenges our understanding of the figure in space, inviting us to consider how visual elements themselves can create meaning, destabilizing traditional ways of seeing and representing the world.