The Fourth 'Book of Schemes'. Album #2, the First Folder 1978

Valerii Lamakh made this drawing, "The Fourth 'Book of Schemes'," with colored pencils, and what strikes me is the idea of ‘schemes’ as a way of working, or of seeing. The pentagon is constructed from straight lines, but within it, the colorful marks break down the form, creating a surface alive with pattern. Lamakh’s lines are crisp, with no smudging, no fuzz – they almost appear printed, but then you see the slight variations in pressure and the overlaps which reveal the artists hand. This is a real slow burn piece, there's so much attention to detail, it makes you feel something of the concentration the artist must have felt as they drew. The whole thing reminds me of Sol LeWitt's wall drawings, especially in its systematic, almost mathematical approach to mark making. But unlike LeWitt, Lamakh brings an intuitive, playful sense of color to the structure. Ultimately, it’s in the ambiguity of these ‘schemes’, and how they unfold in the process of making and seeing, that the work really sings.