Ukrainian Ex Libris at the End of the 20th Century and the Beginning of the 21st Century as an Instrument of the Intercultural Dialogue

Abstract

It is very important to detect the forms of artistic activity within the modern artistic space, independently of the geographical reflection, which would preserve the functions of an instrument for interpersonal communication, serving as a life ring of the intercultural dialogue. One of such forms of the artistic language at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century has become the bookplate. Since the 15th century, ex libris had utterly application functions, serving as an identifying mark of a specific book collection and defining the belonging of a book to a specific library, private owner, monastery, etc. In fact it was a resemblance to a name card of a book collection owner, whether it was referring to a specific person or organization. Since the books have been very expensive at the time of the first ex libris appearance, printed media only started gaining popularity and the tradition of a manuscript book was not lost yet through the ages, a book was a luxury, a symbol of the wealth of its owner, and therefore it was highly valued. The first ex libris served only as a resemblance to heraldic signs or stamps; their artistic quality could not be discussed, as for a long time they were placed at the flyleaf of a book, so they were unseen and carried out only a utility function. This lasted for many centuries and the application aspect of the phenomenon was dominating, that is why the bookplate did not represent an individual interest. In the 20th century the situation started to change, which led to the fact that, from the last third of the century, we can speak about the regeneration of the bookplate from an appendix of a book to an independent work of art. And Ukraine gained a leading role, proving an outstanding ex libris professional level.