Composition 1963

This is Hryhorii Havrylenko's "Composition", made with paint on paper. It's a riot of color, like someone took a deck of cards and threw them up in the air. I love how the colours don't sit still; they're all edges and movement. Looking at the top right there, it's like he took a brush full of turquoise and just slashed it across the paper. The red dot hovers like a stop sign, but for what? Maybe it's a stop sign for the eye. The paint is thin in places, almost like a watercolor, but then he'll lay on a thick stroke of red or yellow. It’s hard to tell exactly what tools he used, but that’s okay. This piece reminds me a bit of Joan Mitchell’s work. There’s that same sense of energy and letting go. It's like Havrylenko is saying, "Here's a feeling, here's a moment, try to catch it." It’s a reminder that art is always in conversation with itself, always changing.