Exlibris of U.Birulev 1977

This is Oleksandr Aksinin’s ‘Exlibris of U.Birulev’, made in 1976 using etching, a printmaking technique. Looking at all those etched lines, so carefully placed, reminds me that artmaking is always about process, about the accumulation of small actions that build into something bigger. Here, the texture is created entirely by these tiny, precise marks. The whole image has this incredible density, almost a claustrophobia, made from the accumulation of line and dot. It’s like a drawing, but the process gives it a very different feel, a kind of mechanical, yet deeply personal touch. Check out that figure climbing the ladder, the way Aksinin creates depth and shadow with the density of marks. There's a sense of humor here, a playful absurdity, reminiscent of Francisco Goya's prints, where the grotesque and the whimsical collide. Ultimately, it's about how the artist transforms a simple line into a whole world of feeling and meaning. And that, my friends, is the magic of art.