Exlibris of Y.Holberg 1978

Oleksandr Aksinin made this small print, "Exlibris of Y.Holberg," in the late 70s, a time when artmaking behind the Iron Curtain required a bit of stealth. Look at how Aksinin uses these tiny etched lines to create a whole world, a sort of surreal stage set. It's all in shades of green, like an overgrown garden. The texture! It's so precise, especially in the tree of life bursting with pears. You can almost feel the sharpness of the lines, the way they carve into the paper. That figure in the tree, he’s like a gardener of knowledge, tending to the fruits of wisdom. The way he’s framed by the architecture gives the image a sense of theater. It reminds me of Piranesi's etchings, those impossible prisons and architectural fantasies. Aksinin’s print shares that sense of a world built from imagination. It’s a reminder that art can bloom even in the most constrained spaces.