Alexander Aksinin Week at TechnoChitlins

Alexander Aksinin portrait 1980
Alexander Aksinin portrait 1980

Wikipedia:

Alexander Aksinin was a well-regarded printmaker and painter. He was born in Lviv, Soviet Union, on October 2, 1949, and died in a plane crash near Lviv on May 3, 1985. His sophisticated etching technique, precision and perfectionist attention to details earned him the sobriquet the “Dürer of Lviv”.[1] Art critics hailed him as “a 20th century Piranesi” for his dramatic and elaborate constructs.[2]

Alexander Aksinin was born to military cartographer Dmitriy Aksinin and railroad official Ludmila Aksinina. In 1972 he graduated from theUkrainian Institute of Printing, where he specialized in Graphics Arts. In 1972–1977 Aksinin worked as an art editor in a publishing house, served in the Soviet army and then worked as an art designer in an industrial design office. Since 1977 he focused entirely on his art, in particular in the fields of printed and drawn graphics.

On May 3, 1985, on his way back from Tallinn, Alexander Aksinin died in a plane crash near Zolochiv, close to Lviv.

This is a respite from all the romantic realism of the last few weeks, and a small voyage into a very strange mind. The selection I’m presenting is all woodcuts and are all drawn from the work Aksinin was doing just before he died. It is only a tiny portion of his prodigious output; I’m sure to revisit his older work in the future.

For now, though- enjoy…