Exlibris of Ludochka 1976

Oleksandr Aksinin made this etching, Exlibris of Ludochka, at some point in his short life. Aksinin was a Ukranian artist, and his work often feels like a personal language, where symbols and figures are repeated and remixed. The surface of the print is a landscape of fine lines, creating a dense, almost hypnotic texture. The ink, a warm, ochre tone, gives the piece a feeling of antiquity, like a relic unearthed. There's a face at the top, but look lower down and you see another pair of hands. Then below that, another, but they are holding mushrooms or something! The composition resembles a diagram or a map, inviting us to trace the lines, decipher the symbols, and piece together our own narrative. Aksinin died young, but left behind a body of work that reminds me of Paul Klee. Like Klee, Aksinin’s art is a reminder that the most profound statements can come in the smallest of packages.