6th International Ex-libris Competition with Bulgarian artist Onnik Karanfilyan who won the second prize of Selçuk Ecza Deposu
Hasip Pektaş
Onnik Karanfilyan was born in 1963. In 1982 he graduated with honours from the National High School of Arts ‘Tsanko Lavrenov’. In 1988 and 1994 he studied in the workshop of Prof. Stoyan Stoyanov – Techi at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia. He is one of the first artists to combine classical printmaking techniques such as engraving and lithography with computer graphics. His works are exhibited in various museums. He has many awards. He won the third prize at the 1st International Printmaking Biennial held in Turkey in 2008, and Selçuk Ecza Deposu won the second prize at the 6th International Ex-libris Competition in 2025. He lives and works in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Could you tell us a little about yourself? When did you become interested in bookplates? (Tell us about your success in the graphic design competition in Turkey.)
I can say that I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. I started by redrawing pictures from postage stamps, as well as comic book characters, mainly from the French magazine “PIF”. In the first grade I started collecting stamps and coins because they were very beautiful, I was fascinated by how they were created. My grandmother, who graduated from a French college, gave me all kinds of books with illustrations that I tried to redraw. That was when I first encountered graphics that illustrated old books, and I learned about bookplates from my cousin Armand Basmajyan at the National Library when I was a student at the art high school. The first bookplate I created was for my grandfather Onnik Karanfilyan, who graduated from an American college in Konya, Turkey. Since I was a child, I have loved miniatures that are based on ancient coins, as well as old engravings in which the detail is perfect. The first bookplates that I saw in the National Library 43 years ago inspired me to create a similar image. Thus began my love for small graphics and bookplates. Success in a given field, in this case graphics, comes after enormous work, after thousands of drawings over the years, which train not only the hand, but also the mind. Every time I set myself new tasks when I set out to create a given bookplate, graphics, painting. In the case of the competition, the task I set myself was to create a metaphor for the time in which we lived, are living and will live through the human body. Therefore, I tried to make it perfect and to convey my idea through the pose.
Onnik Karanfilian, C3+C5+P7, 9,5×3,8 cm, 2002
What is your artistic approach and sources of inspiration?
My approach is to draw constantly with pencil, charcoal, chalk, ink and all kinds of materials. To make many sketches and drawings of the idea until I find the right sound. My inspiration comes from life itself. I draw what excites me, without thinking whether the audience will like it or not, because when the artist is honest, things work out, even if you draw sad or ugly things.
What do you think is the social and cultural significance of the ex-libris?
The social significance, as well as the cultural one, is enormous for people who love literature, fine arts and strive to get to know the world through the cultural paradigms created by human civilization. The ex-libris is a miniature graphic, but with enormous power, which has a positive connotation and can only enrich the different layers of society, show the positive and negative features of society, inspire and make people think about the different problems that stand before us people to solve. The ex-libris can sound more elegant, like a small graphic, it can also sound more poster-like, with a synthesized idea, it can also sound symbolic as a sign and this is its power, as long as the narrative is for the person who owns it.
What would you like to say about collecting bookplates?
Several prerequisites are necessary for collecting bookplates: First, you must love literature, the eternal themes described in various mythologies, through which a person understands and gets to know himself in the colorful palette of characters and hundreds of incidents, which are actually human stories over time. Everyone finds themselves in a certain character from the stories, on which a bookplate could be created.
Second – you must have a passion for collecting, such as collecting philatelic stamps and coins. The collector collects in order to experience and relive each image, each story in the image. Of course, here comes the question of the quality of the image and the aesthetic side of a given bookplate. There are also collectors who learn on the go what is beautiful and what is not so much, because people do not have the same preparation, what is exquisite and valuable and what is more marginal in execution and is done more by inertia, without heart and soul.
The collector of ex-libris is a person who loves fine arts and especially graphics, which is considered the most intellectual genre among the arts. The first art that arose was precisely graphic drawing thousands of years ago. Quite abstractly and conditionally, we can say that the first ex-libris in the history of human civilization were the drawings in the caves, which told the stories of their creator, of their tribe, etc. Back then, there were no books, the pages were the walls of the caves, on which man wrote his stories, through various symbols, which later turned into letters – the most perfect graphics. For example, the letter A, in the modern Western world, comes from the depiction of an ox’s head (aleph-ox), which was taken from the first revolutionary alphabet – the Phoenician one. And all the other letters were a story about a given subject – betin -house, lamed -goad, etc. Of course, they have evolved in their depiction, reaching perfection among the Latins, in the Roman Empire. But they enter the Western world from Phoenicia, through Ancient Greece, and up to the present day. We can conclude that the collector of bookplates is an intellectual who, through the exchange of bookplates, seeks the eternal answer – what is Beauty. And perhaps we will not be wrong if we say that Beauty is in everything that tells about our humble earthly path.
Onnik Karanfilian, Gravür+Ofset, 74×100 cm, 2007
What are the differences between traditional and digital bookplate design?
As an artist who created the first fully digital work in the history of Bulgarian graphics, I can say that the difference is in the tool with which you create the image. In fine arts, the technical side of the issue appears after a work is evaluated. Digital art is also closely related to photography, which was discovered by artists. Humanity has strived to reach perfection in imitating Nature, and authorial photography, digital imaging give the true artist limitless opportunities for work. So for me, the quality of an image, its authorship and originality are important, and the method of creation is only the technical side of the issue. In both cases, the artist can fail if he is not clear about which is the better tool for his Idea. For beauty, it does not matter how it is created – if it brings delight, excitement and reflection on the given topic, then the work is done well.
What do you foresee for bookplate art in the future?
If we follow the development of different genres in art, we will see that each genre has peaks and valleys. This depends on the development of the world. Aesthetic criteria are determined by the ethical norms in the development of human civilization, in different societies. An example can be given with the hippie movement, etc. to see how social relationships influence the visual arts, in particular the bookplate. If we follow its development from its appearance during the age of knights to the present day, we will see a huge change that is dictated by the development of Civilization. I think that as long as the Book exists, which is increasingly valued by people around the world, the bookplate will exist in parallel with other arts. The magic of the short story, such as the bookplate, will always have a magical and attractive power for that part of the people around the world who are looking for answers to the eternal questions about Life.
What is your experience in art, what do you want to tell?
Art is a path that everyone walks in their own way. It is an individual act of contact with the Creator. I strive to be honest with myself, as well as with the viewer, sharing what excites me. Experience accumulates imperceptibly, without you looking for it on purpose. It is the result of your personal contact of your soul with the white sheet, and when it reaches the heart of a viewer, you have climbed another step towards Him. The traces that remain after you on the white sheet are your experience, your confession and suffering. 18.06.2025 Sofia -Istanbul
Onnik Karanfilian, C3+C5, 13,8×12,4 cm, 2025
Leave a reply