Bull 1985

Oleksandr Aksinin made this engraving called Bull, but it's undated. Just look at the mesmerizing detail! It's like Aksinin made his own world here with just ink and a steady hand. The density of the marks is incredible, creating areas of dark shadow and texture, and the sheer amount of labor that has gone into making the image is striking. And what about the central motif: a strange bull-like creature, adorned with multiple eyes and various symbolic objects? There is a very fine line where the central ring is and the line where the body of the bull is. You can almost see the two lines becoming one. This brings to mind the work of Paul Klee, who used line and symbol to explore the realms of the subconscious. Aksinin's work, much like Klee's, invites us to embrace ambiguity and find our own meaning within the artwork’s intricate details. It is like a kind of conversation, and we are all invited to join.