Ex-libris as an essay on the history of Ukrainian culture, a complex of spiritual achievements of society

Abstract

An ex-libris, or book plate, is work, created by artists for their friends and acquaintances, often free of charge, as well as for participation in international or local competitions, for anniversaries, and to order, mostly by wealthy foreign collectors. Thus, the ex-libris is an important source of history not only of Ukrainian culture, but of all mankind.

            The creativework of the legendary poet, musician and actor Volodymyr Vysotsky, who had many fans, was especially popular. They ordered bookplates from Mykola Bondarenko from Sumy region, Orest Kryvoruchko from Chernivtsi, Mykola Neimesh and Oleksiy Litvinov from Kharkiv, who created 20 bookplates with the image of V. Vysotsky and the heroes of his works for Vadim Albertin from Ochakov in the early 1990s.

            Anna Akhmatova was no less popular in the art of ex-libris. Her poetic lines have attracted millions of people, both in our country and abroad. The author of more than a 1000 ex-libris David Becker from Odessa is an artist of a wide range of subjects. His work is presented with portrait images of famous composers and a series of “Carnivals of Venice”.

            The color ex-libris of Arkady and Gennady (father and son) Pugachevsky, Volodymyr Vyshnyak from Kyiv, Vasyl Leonenko from Chernihiv and others are no less interesting.

            Masters of the book plate like to honor outstanding figures of culture and art of the past and dedicate EL of memory to them. Many such graphic miniatures were created by Georgy Sergeyev from Kyiv, Borys Drobotyuk from Lviv, Ivan Balan from Chernivtsi and others.

Ex-libris by the Honored Artist of Ukraine Ivan Kryslach from Lviv are dedicated to the soloists of the S. Krushelnytska Lviv National Opera and actors of M. Zankovetska Lviv Theater. He is also the author of numerous book plates for Lviv museums.