Icarus 1984

Oleksandr Aksinin made this print, entitled 'Icarus', in the Soviet Union at some point before his death in 1985. Aksinin worked as part of a vibrant, unofficial art scene in Lviv, Ukraine, during the late Soviet era. In this print we see a powerful image of a winged figure plummeting downwards, evoking the ancient Greek myth of Icarus. Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting the wax of his homemade wings. The formal language here—the use of black and white, the stark contrasts, the unsettling juxtapositions—creates a deeply melancholic atmosphere. We can read this image as an allegory of artistic freedom and constraint under a totalitarian regime. A single, candle-lit table stands before a dark mass of barrels; the winged figure hurtles into the darkness above. This print seems to critique the limitations placed on creative expression during this period. To understand Aksinin's work more fully, we might consult archives of unofficial art from the Soviet era or explore the history of artistic resistance movements in Ukraine. Art, like this, is always shaped by the society in which it is made.