Ex-Libris for Volodymyr Onusaitis
Alexander Aksinin
- ID
- Г-IV-4085
- Author
- Alexander Aksinin
- Name
- Ex-Libris for Volodymyr Onusaitis
- Date of creation
- 1981
- Technique
- etching
- Material
- imprint on paper
- Dimensions (height x width, cm)
- 12.3 x 11
- Type
- printmaking
- Provenance
- Courtesy of V. Onusaitis, 1987
This is one of the early printed works by Alexander Aksinin. In this piece of art, we can already see the beginnings of the artist's creative style, in particular his rich visual image as well as narrative and humorous irony. The work is dedicated to Volodymyr Onusaitis, a graphic artist and Alexander Aksinin’s close friend.
Alexander Aksinin metaphorically depicts the artistic process as a volcanic eruption in front of the audience. The author shows the creator's pencil – powerful at the base and scattered with lead balls in its upper part. It appears to be a volcano island emerging from a central reservoir, similar to an amphitheater filled with water, with a miniature ladder attached to it on the left. Spectators are depicted schematically in the rows of the theatron. They can only contemplate the water with a single fish and the trunk of the artist's pencil. The volcano island's triangle is depicted at the top, above the waves with sailboats. Water is pouring from the pipes in the other two fragmentary depicted reservoirs, which are located on both sides of the central one. At the top, between the reservoir arches, is an accumulation of hemispherical organic shapes that resemble wrinkled bald human heads. At the bottom, beneath the arches of the walls, there are inscriptions: AKSOИUS (AKSinin – ONUSaitis) on the left, KROKUS on the right, and barely visible numbers 18 and 35. On the left is an indistinct monogram "a", as well as the year 75. The pencil-vulcano and background are designed in a wide cloud-shaped frame with the word VULKAN written twice at the bottom. ОСТРОВ Я (translator’s note: ISLAND EGO), an ironic allusion to Onusaitis' egocentrism, is visible in the background on the right. The phrase EX°LIBRIS°ONUSAITIS°A appears in the top center on a cloud-like ribbon. Another inscription can be found in the middle reservoir, above the fish, at the top right: НИ Х. СЕБЕ, ОСТРОВ (translator’s note: WHAT AN ISLAND). The entire composition is symmetrical and is arranged in an octagon with elongated side verticals.
Volodymyr Onusaitis (1947–2017), a graphic designer from Lviv and Alexander Aksinin's friend. They studied together at the Lviv Polygraphic Institute, although Volodymyr Onusaitis was in the correspondence department. The author of ex-libris for Alexander Aksinin (1973, 1977), as well as his portrait (1973, 1984). In 2001, Volodymyr Onusaitis published his memoirs "About Alexander Aksinin".