Geometric Composition 1966

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this geometric composition, with pen on paper, sometime in the mid-sixties. Look at this relentless hatching and cross-hatching. It reminds me of Agnes Martin, except she was all calm, cool, and collected. Whereas Havrylenko seems to me like he was vibing with something else entirely, more like a prisoner scratching marks into the wall. Or a very frustrated architect, maybe? I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, maybe a modernist window or some kind of weird H, but it certainly keeps your eye moving. All that disciplined labor, that intense focus, it gets under your skin. And then to leave parts of it blank, like the drawing is incomplete, or like he gave up? That’s kind of relatable, right? I get that. Anyway, it is a pretty captivating little drawing.