Exlibris of V.Kursanov 1977

Oleksandr Aksinin made this 'Exlibris of V.Kursanov' using ink on paper, sometime around 1977. It’s a bookplate, so it’s like a little personalized stamp of ownership. The blue-grey wash feels like a blueprint, or maybe a faded memory, and then you have these crisp black lines cutting through it, forming these surreal clock-like shapes. There's a lot going on, but it's all held together by this tight control of line and tone. Look at the lower half of the print, the precision of the cross hatching, it is incredibly detailed. I think that the beauty of art is that it’s not just about making something pretty, it is about creating a record of a thought process, a way of seeing. Aksinin, who sadly died at only 35, reminds me a little of Paul Klee in that way, distilling a complex idea into the simplest graphic form. Art is an ongoing conversation, and this piece is a fascinating contribution.