Composition (Mother With Child) 1960

Hryhorii Havrylenko made this painting called *Composition (Mother With Child)* with what looks like oil paint, though it's hard to know for sure, using bold strokes of yellows, greens, blues, and reds to build up the image. I can almost feel Havrylenko layering each color, maybe searching for the right combination to capture the bond between mother and child. It's like he's wrestling with the paint, trying to find the emotion hidden within the colors. See how the yellows reach out, almost like arms, and the greens and blues create a world around them. I love how the paint has texture, you can see each stroke. It's not just a picture; it’s a physical thing, a record of someone's thoughts and feelings. There's this one red dash near the center that feels like the heart of the whole piece, pulling everything together. It reminds me of how artists like Henri Matisse used color to express raw emotion. I think Havrylenko is in conversation with other artists here, trying out new ideas and ways of seeing. Painting can be about exploration and experimentation, not just showing something exactly as it is, but feeling and interpreting through the paint itself.