Kukryniksy Kupriyanov Krylov and Nikolai Sokolov. Kukryniksy cartoonists

Collective biography

A significant moment in the work was a military poster "We will ruthlessly crush and destroy the enemy!". He appeared on the June streets of Moscow one of the first - immediately after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR. The Kukryniksy went through the whole war: their leaflets accompanied the Soviet soldiers all the way to Berlin. In addition, the cycle of posters "Windows of TASS" was very popular.

They became the classics of Soviet political caricature, which they understood as a weapon in the fight against a political enemy, and did not at all recognize other trends in art and caricature, which manifested themselves fully in the first place in the new format of Literaturnaya Gazeta (department of humor "12 Chairs Club" ).

Influence on world culture, awards

Quotes

“Our team, in truth, consists of four artists: Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov and Kukryniksy. All three of us treat the latter with great care and concern,” the Kukryniksy write and emphasize: “What was created by the team could not be mastered any one of us individually." (Quoted from the book: Kemenov V.S. Articles about art. M., 1965, p. 104.)

“Creative disputes,” say the Kukryniksy, happen in individual cases, but they do not violate unanimity in work. But it is joyful to see how some of our common work is enriched by bringing into it all the best that each of us has. pitying and not saving for oneself personally. In such work there should be no painful self-love, an indifferent attitude. (Quoted from the book: Kemenov V.S. Articles about art. M., 1965, p. 105.)

"Alexey Maksimovich Gorky," the Kukryniksy write, "played a huge role in our artistic destiny. If we hadn't met him, our path would have been different." (Quoted from the book: Kemenov V.S. Articles about art. M., 1965, p. 208.)

Works and exhibitions

An extensive collection of artworks written by the Kukryniksy is collected in the private collection of the Mamontov family.

Since April 30, 2008, the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve has exhibited a posthumous exhibition dedicated to Victory Day “History through the eyes of the Kukryniksy. 1928-1945. Military poster. Caricature. Painting. Graphic arts"

Notes

see also

Links

• Kukryniksy. Biography and work of the artist on Artonline.ru
• Kukryniksy in the library "Prospector"

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what "Kukryniksy (artists)" is in other dictionaries:

- (a pseudonym according to the first syllables of surnames), a creative team of Soviet graphic artists and painters: Kupriyanov Mikhail Vasilievich (b. 1903), Krylov Porfiry Nikitich (b. 1902), Sokolov Nikolai Alexandrovich (b. 1903). People's Artists of the USSR (1958) ... Art Encyclopedia

- (pseudo-according to the first syllables of surnames) a creative team of graphic artists and painters: Mikhail Vasilievich Kupriyanov (1903-91), Porfiry Nikitich Krylov (1902-90), Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sokolov (b. 1903). Full members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947), people's ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (a pseudonym according to the first syllables of the last names and the name of the latter), a creative team of graphic artists and painters: Kupriyanov Mikhail Vasilievich (1903-91), Krylov Porfiry Nikitich (1902-90), Sokolov Nikolai Alexandrovich (born 1903). People's Artists of the USSR ... ... Russian history

This term has other meanings, see Kukryniksy (meanings). “We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!”, the first military poster of the Kukryniksy, 1941 (Hitler broke the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany ... Wikipedia

Kukryniksy- pseudonym of three artists. Kupriyanov Mikh. You. (1903 91), Krylov Porf. Nikitich (1902-90), Sokolov Nick. Al dr. (1903 2000) people. Artists of the USSR (1958), actual. member Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947). They studied at VKHUTEMAS VKHUTEIN (Moscow, 1921 29), began jointly ... ... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

Kukryniksy- KUKRYNIKSY, a creative team of graphic artists and painters: Kupriyanov Mikhail Vasilievich (b. 1903), Krylov Porfiry Nikitich (b. 1902), Sokolov Nikolai Alexandrovich (b. 1903). Valid. members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947), people. artists of the USSR (1958), Heroes of the Social ... ... Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: Encyclopedia

- (a pseudonym based on the first syllables of surnames) a creative team of Soviet graphic artists and painters: Kupriyanov Mikhail Vasilyevich [b. 8 (21) 10.1903, Tetyushi, now the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic], Krylov Porfiry Nikitich [b. 9 (22) 8/1902, the village of Shchelkunovo, now ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

KUKRYNIKS- Creative team of artists, masters of Russian caricature of the XX century. The team, named after the first letters of the names of its members (as well as the name of one of the participants), included: Mikhail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov, Porfiry Nikitich Krylov, ... ... Linguistic Dictionary

A pseudonym based on the first syllables of surnames, a creative team of graphic artists and painters: Kupriyanov Mikhail Vasilievich (1903 1991), Krylov Porfiry Nikitich (1902 1990), Sokolov Nikolai Aleksandrovich (1903 2000). Full members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947), folk ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Kukryniksy is a creative team of Soviet graphic artists and painters, which included full members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, People's Artists of the USSR (1958), Heroes of Socialist Labor Mikhail Kupriyanov (1903-1991), Porfiry Krylov (1902-1990) and Nikolai Sokolov (1903- 2000).

Biography of Kukryniksy

The pseudonym "Kukryniksy" is composed of the first syllables of the names of Kupriyanov and Krylov, as well as the first three letters of the name and the first letter of the name of Nikolai Sokolov.

The joint work of the Kukryniksy began in their student years at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. Artists from different parts of the Soviet Union came to the Moscow VKHUTEMAS. Kupriyanov from Kazan, Krylov from Tula, Sokolov from Rybinsk. In 1922, Kupriyanov and Krylov met and began working together in the wall newspaper of VKhUTEMAS as Kukry and Krykup. At this time, Sokolov, while still living in Rybinsk, signed Nix on his drawings. In 1924, he joined Kupriyanov and Krylov, and the three of them worked in the wall newspaper as Kukryniksy)

Creativity Kukryniksy

Three artists worked by the method of collective creativity (each also worked individually - on portraits and landscapes).

They are best known for their numerous skillfully executed caricatures and cartoons, as well as book illustrations created in a characteristic caricature style.

The group was looking for a new unified style that used the skill of each of the authors.

The heroes of literary works were the first to fall under the pen of cartoonists.

Later, when the Kukryniksy became permanent contributors to the Pravda newspaper and the Krokodil magazine, they took up primarily political caricature. According to the memoirs of the artist of the magazine "Crocodile" German Ogorodnikov, since the mid-60s,

A significant moment in the work was the military poster “We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!. He appeared on the June streets of Moscow one of the first - immediately after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR.

The Kukryniksy went through the whole war: their leaflets accompanied the Soviet soldiers all the way to Berlin. In addition, the cycle of posters "Windows of TASS" was very popular.

They became the classics of Soviet political caricature, which they understood as a weapon in the fight against a political enemy, and did not at all recognize other trends in art and caricature, which manifested themselves fully in the first place in the new format of the Literary Gazette (the department of humor "12 Chairs Club" ).

Their political cartoons, often published in the Pravda newspaper, belong to the best examples of this genre (“Ticks to Ticks”, “I Lost a Ring ...”, “Under the Eagle Backfired, Responded in Rome”, “Wall Haircut”, “Lion’s share”, a series of drawings “warmongers”, etc.). The team owns numerous political posters (“Transformation of the Fritz”, “Peoples warn”, etc.).

The Kukryniksy are also known as painters and masters of easel drawing. They are the authors of the paintings "Morning", "Tanya", "The Flight of the Germans from Novgorod", "The End" (1947-1948), "The Old Masters" (1936-1937). They made pastel drawings - “I. V. Stalin and V. M. Molotov”, “I. V. Stalin in Kureika”, “Barricades on Presnya in 1905”, “Chkalov on Udd Island”, etc.

Members of the team also worked separately - in the field of portrait and landscape.

Works and exhibitions

The milestone works for the Kukryniksy were grotesque topical cartoons on themes of domestic and international life (series "Transport", 1933-1934, "Warmongers", 1953-1957), propaganda, including anti-fascist, posters ("We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy! ”, 1941), illustrations for the works of Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (1939), Anton Chekhov (1940-1946), Maxim Gorky (“The Life of Klim Samgin”, “Foma Gordeev”, “Mother”, 1933, 1948-1949 ), Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov ("The Golden Calf"), Miguel Cervantes ("Don Quixote").

By the time of the Great Patriotic War, the art of the Kukryniksy satirists had reached full, deep maturity. A creative methodology was finally formed, a very wide range of artistic techniques was defined, and visual technique was honed to a brilliance. And most importantly, the enemy was targeted, studied and understood. It was understood by artists not only concretely politically, but also morally, aesthetically (no matter how strange such words sound in this context). From the tower of socialist humanism, the Kukryniksy vigilantly saw and recognized not only the social essence of fascist concepts, but also all their relationships with the life of the era as a whole and each of its contemporaries separately. Before the eyes of the masters were not abstract theses, but living destinies. And this is the theme of full-blooded art. Exposing inhumanity as the reverse side and internal impulse of any theories and actions of fascism, the Kukryniksy were inspired by a figurative idea full of noble ethical meaning and high content. This is the fundamental principle of their creative and civil feat during the struggle against the fascist invasion.

His first work of the era of 1941-1945 - the poster "We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!" - Kukryniksy completed on the very first day, "more precisely, on the very first evening of the war - June 22, 1941. On June 24, the poster became an integral part of the instantly changed, severely tense appearance of Moscow, and then of other" our cities. It entered the life of Soviet people like summons and blacked-out windows. In it, with the lapidary clarity of a brief formula, the whole situation of the great struggle that had begun was minted: Hitler throwing off his mask against the Red Army, against freedom; the cannibal against the man. Roughly, to the point of sharpness straightforward? Yes! And some other posters of the Kukryniksy, made during the war years are the same. They could not be otherwise. This is not a spectacle for a slowly thoughtful museum contemplation. It was necessary to create images that could break through the storm of rumbling events and unrest of wartime, capture everyone’s imagination with their anger and passion, tell about the main, decisive features of what is happening in the language of simple, distinctly clear truths.
The Kukryniksy did it. Their art, as never before, has acquired a national character. And it did business in general. It fought. Artists resorted to different genres, as to different kinds of weapons. They hit the enemy with long-range volleys of posters, fired at the hordes of invaders with mines and torpedoes of their caricatures, and threw satirical leaflets into their rear.

The wartime situation required the utmost efficiency of work. For many drawings for newspapers and magazines, for "Windows TASS", the artists had a few hours. There was no question of complex, long searches for an image, options, alterations. If another thing turned out schematically, without a "zest" - it was unthinkable to postpone it, hide it in the archive. The new works of the Kukryniksy in the most literal sense of the word were torn from their hands. And it would be snobbish hypocrisy to condemn artists for the fact that in the huge mass of their works of the war era there is a certain number of “passing”, unsuccessful ones. Moreover, such works served their own, albeit short-lived, but necessary and noble service. But judging by the best works of the period, the Kukryniksy not only generally maintained a high level in their work, but also gave it a new strength and sharpness of artistic impact. Generated by lofty pathos, the fierce inspiration of the struggle, the energy of complete self-giving, the internal mobilization of artists, gave their art a living juice to drink, gave it a new impetus for development. The satirical fantasy, the metaphorical structure of the image, so characteristic of artists in their caricatures of the war years, are embodied with a special capacity and lapidarity of allegorical generalization.

For example, in The Transformation of the Fritz (1943), the ranks of German soldiers, guided by Hitler's pointing finger, are "transformed" first into walking fascist signs, and then into rows of birch crosses on snow-covered Russian fields. The metaphorical action of the caricature with the clarity of an aphorism captures the entire history of the Nazi invasion - from its origins to the finale, which the artists foresaw with complete conviction.

In a similar order, metaphor in many other works - easily visible, clear and catchy in its rapid figurative dynamics - interprets significant events of time in its own way, sums them up, reveals the most important and essential. Hitler tried to encircle his tank divisions with spider paws, to take Moscow in pincers, but ran into the stranglehold of other pincers - a retaliatory strike by the Soviet Army ("Ticks to Ticks", 1941). The same strong, working pincers (the analogy, of course, is not accidental), bending into the number "3", squeeze the Fuhrer's throat with their ends ("Three Years of War", 1944). An empty-headed fanatic in Berlin already “does not boil the pot” - and here is the result of his brainless strategy - the “Russian boiler near Minsk”, into which the butt of a Soviet soldier crushes heaps of Germans (“Two boilers”, 1944).
The traitor Laval is tied with a fascist rope to the chair of the Prime Minister of the puppet government of Vichy, but you cannot sit comfortably on this dilapidated “Rococo” furniture: the blade of the “Fighting France” bayonet pierced through the seat, and the dwarf Laval balances on his hands in despair (“Do not sit down, don't get down...", 1943). This is a whole chapter in the history of the war years, embodied with unthinkable eccentricity, but absolutely true and accurate in essence assessment of the very real state of affairs.

In general, the obvious majority of the satirical allegory created by the Kukryniksy during the war years has a deep and multifaceted expressiveness. They, these allegories, are based on specific situations that the artists have recast and twisted in their works with amazing ingenuity and brilliance of wit. The notorious gospel of fascism - "Mein Kampf" - is transformed by artists into a cash cow with Hitler's muzzle, which Hitler himself milks - after all, the Fuhrer's income from this book was fabulous ("Cash Cow", 1942). Fascist leaders were squeezing the last juices out of their European satellites - and in a 1942 cartoon, Hitler and Mussolini are shown twisting Laval like dirty laundry, while other quislings are already hanging on a rope, like pitiful, spent rags. The Nazis shamelessly inflated the myth about the power of the “Atlantic wall” they created on the northern coast of France - and the Kukryniksy show what this “inflated value” is: a long row of some kind of patched cannon-shaped crackers, which, like football cameras, are inflated by the Goebbels monkey (“Total swindle” , 1943). The content of all these and many similar satirical fantasies is easily deciphered, but they are full of significant historical meaning;

I deliberately lined up the descriptions of several randomly taken cartoons of the Kukryniksy. This not only allows you to get an idea of ​​the range of subjects chosen by the artists. Sometimes the descriptions can serve purely art history purposes. Here they are somewhat paradoxical: the author sought to prove that it is impossible to create an exact verbal parallel to the works of artists: the satirical works of the Kukryniksy constitute an exclusive belonging to the visual range of impressions, the elements of visual images. It may be objected to me that the visual arts, just like music and architecture, have always had their own special and unique artistic speech, for which it is unthinkable to find an exhaustively accurate verbal equivalent. I do not argue, but this well-known truth almost does not apply to modern caricature. A huge part of it is much closer to literature than to fine arts. True, letters and words are replaced in thousands of newspaper and magazine caricatures of the 20th century by dashed hieroglyphs, but by themselves they still do not create either visual images or fine art. These caricatures are reminiscent of ancient pictography - pictorial writing, the depiction of events and actions with the help of conventional signs. The whole essence of these "pictographic" caricatures is in such and such situations, such and such actions, and even more often, the replicas of the characters. Not only the visual image, but even the technical quality of the drawing practically does not matter here. This kind of caricatures are invented and perceived according to the laws of literature; dashed hieroglyphs serve in this case as a kind of printed characters.

Such caricatures can not only be recounted, but without any loss, fully replaced with words. I do not intend to use qualitative criteria, to talk about how good or bad the genre of "pictographic" caricature is - it exists and is a special phenomenon that needs to be understood in detail and thoroughly. But as for the Kukryniksy, their work belongs wholly and undividedly to the fine arts, an age-old tradition of satirical graphics based on the techniques of purely visual characteristics, similes, and metaphors. During the war years, not only the pictorial skill of artists, but also their very visual-figurative thinking reached a deep maturity and virtuoso artistry. The free play of satirical fantasy, the lightness and elastic force of its flight, the ability for instant and every time original figurative improvisation on a topic that has arisen even now - all this has become the everyday atmosphere of the artists' work. In the years 1941-1945 they created hundreds of cartoons, and any of them - even a tiny intro for a leaflet, even a picture of a sticker on a food concentrate wrapper - contains its own satirical image. Kukryniksy simply cannot do otherwise: pictorial metaphor is the native speech of their caricatures. By the way, the organic nature of this speech is one of the obvious proofs of the full-blooded vitality of the classical traditions in the field of satire, the ability of these traditions to give new shoots, to enter into a lively connection with our modernity.

But back to the content of the Kukryniksy military cartoons. Was there some relief in them, did they not show a strong and merciless enemy as just pathetic and absurdly ludicrous?
This question cannot be answered in one word. Despite the outward simplicity and general intelligibility of Kukryniks' caricatures, they contain several figurative layers. Of course, the fascists are ridiculed in them. The artists sought to ensure that the first emotional reaction that their drawings and posters are capable of evoking was the laughter of Soviet viewers at the Nazis, even in the most difficult periods of the war for us (I would say, especially in such periods). For this laughter gave strength in a deadly battle, turned the myth of the invincibility of the fascist hordes into an empty legend, inspired contempt for the enemy, and a ridiculous and despised enemy is not terrible.
But it is worth considering the nature and basis of this laughter. It is not simply caused by fictional comic situations, not by the deliberate stupidity of the Nazis, their appearance and actions. This is the laughter of historical justice over dirty wrong, laughter from the standpoint of moral and social superiority. When Hitler and his associates are depicted as brainless, empty-headed, then it’s not the same thing that the artists want to convince the audience of the clinical psychopathy of the leaders of fascism, that these “figures” are formal idiots who, by chance, found themselves at the helm of power. This is far as simple, but then the true atmosphere of the great struggle would be subjected to an unacceptable distortion: a tragedy took place on the fields of the Patriotic War, not an operetta.

There is no such distortion in the works of the Kukryniksy. Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, Mussolini and others act in their satire not so much as specific individuals, but as personified images of fascism as a whole. Mr. Adolf Hitler may have been naturally smart or stupid, talented or mediocre, but the Nazi dogma that propelled him into the political arena was historically doomed, hostile to reason and the prospects for the development of human civilization. Mr. Joseph Goebbels could have remarkable eloquence, but everything he said was a dirty lie and vile demagogy aimed at justifying the most cruel crimes and disgusting injustice - this was determined not only by his personal qualities, but above all by the nature of the cause to which he devotedly served. In the same way, Goering, Himmler, Ribbentrop, Rosenberg, Frank, Hess, Bormann, Kaltenbrunner and other large and small demons of Nazism could have certain shades of individual qualities, but they were all bloody monsters, cannibals, just because they became active practitioners fascism: only such types he needed. He selected someone as an already established villain, someone gradually turned into a voluntary executioner - the shades are insignificant, the result is important. In the dark fascist kingdom, the logic of the formation of individual characters, the logic of individual destinies was determined by the general logic of fascism, its social content and historical function. All this Kukryniksy perfectly felt and understood. "Hitlers of all stripes" appear in their caricatures as typical representatives of fascism in general. Artists sarcastically ridicule and stigmatize not the pathology of individuals, but the perverted, hostile to humanity nature of the Nazi abomination.
It is precisely with the fact that fascism so vilely and vilely distorts the human in a person, monstrously deforms the human soul and human actions, that such a frequent appearance of the motifs of “animal likeness” in the anti-fascist caricatures of the Kukryniksy is naturally connected. It has already been said that these motifs were found in the pre-war works of artists on similar topics. Now the "brutal beginning" is being developed by masters with special sharpness and strength.

The resemblance to the fable transfer of concepts here is purely external and secondary. After all, the artists had no need for Aesopian language. The inner spring of the "brutal" images in the cartoons of the Kukryniksy is completely different. Atrocity is the soul of fascism; the power of base instincts lies at the basis of all the motives and actions of its agents. Therefore, everything animal in their depiction is quite portrait, and everything human is implausible, fake, looks like a mask. This paradox - terrible, but absolutely real - lies in the very essence of "nature", which was used in their works by the authors of anti-fascist cartoons.

The Kukryniksy play on this disgusting paradox not only as material for artistic metaphors and hyperbole, but also as a “formula of accusation,” to use the language of jurisprudence. They throw into the bestial muzzle of fascism the prosecutor's charge of their satire, "drenched in bitterness and anger." They accuse fascism of inhumanity. They accuse visual images of cartoons are perceived as material evidence of the most vile crimes. The fantastic eccentricity of the drawings, which are absolutely far from "external verisimilitude", not only does not interfere with their vitality, but, on the contrary, is here its surest guarantee. Is there any resemblance between the appearance of the patient and the virus that caused the illness? And the Kukryniksy show precisely the virus of the fascist epidemic, revealing its hidden, hidden essence.

The animals in the cartoons of the Kukryniksy are of a special kind. You will not find them in any zoos. They have nothing to do with the animalistic genre. This is not surprising: after all, even the most arrogant jackal, the most poisonous snake, the most vicious shark is much nobler and more attractive than a fascist. They, jackals and snakes, in fact, have nothing to blame - they live according to the laws that nature itself prescribed for them. And fascism is a vile perversion of human nature, a desecration of it. He is the culprit of a disgusting metamorphosis: people, while maintaining a human appearance, behave like predators and reptiles. These are monstrous centaurs, equally dissimilar to both normal "homo sapiens" and ordinary animals. By the way, it is precisely this collision that the artists very accurately embodied in one of the TASS Windows (The Krylov Monkey about Goebbels, 1934); a pitiful, dejected monkey looks at the portrait with frightened amazement. The last times have become, perhaps, even more severe and harsher in their sharp and angry sarcasm, they do not entertain, they do not amuse at leisure. They call for a struggle, for a high exertion of forces in the name of protecting the ideals of goodness and justice. Assessing specific political situations from the standpoint of socialist ideology, the Kukryniksy give their work a universal character, reflect on the fate of the entire human civilization, and fight for its bright future. Artists fall upon the enemies of peace and freedom with all the striking force of their mature, unquenchable talent. They could, turning to the former to the newly-minted "Hitlers of all stripes", whip them with the scourge of angry and contemptuous Pushkin's lines: "I will torment all your bastards with the execution of shame." This furious tirade would have sounded like the motto of all their work in satire, like an oath that they kept, to which they are sacredly faithful to this day.
1969
Alexander KAMENSKY

From the album "KuKryNixy POLITICAL SATIRE 1929-1946", "Soviet Artist", 1973

Collective biography

Three artists worked by the method of collective creativity (each also worked individually - on portraits and landscapes). They are best known for their numerous skillfully executed caricatures and cartoons, as well as book illustrations created in a characteristic caricature style.

The joint work of the Kukryniksy began in their student years at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. Artists from different parts of the Soviet Union came to the Moscow VKHUTEMAS. Kupriyanov from Kazan, Krylov from Tula, Sokolov from Rybinsk. In 1922, Kupriyanov and Krylov met and began working together in the VKHUTEMAS wall newspaper as Kukry and Krykup. At this time, Sokolov, while still living in Rybinsk, signed Nix on his drawings. In 1924, he joined Kupriyanov and Krylov, and the three of them worked in the wall newspaper as Kukryniksy)

The group was looking for a new unified style that used the skill of each of the authors. The heroes of literary works were the first to fall under the pen of cartoonists. Later, when the Kukryniksy became regular contributors to the Pravda newspaper and the Krokodil magazine, they mainly engaged in political caricature. According to the memoirs of the artist of the Krokodil magazine, German Ogorodnikov, since the mid-1960s, the Kukryniksy practically did not visit the magazine:

Kukryniksy - they have practically never been to the Crocodile. Never have been! I don't remember the occasion. Only once was Sokolov, but I never saw Krylov, and I never saw Kupriyanov either. But I've been working since 1965, so maybe there were before me, but I never saw them on our floor.

The milestone works for the Kukryniksy were grotesque topical cartoons on themes of domestic and international life (series "Transport", -, "War warmers", -), propaganda, including anti-fascist, posters ("We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!", 1941) , illustrations for the works of Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (), Anton Chekhov (-), Maxim Gorky (“Life Klim Samgin”, “Foma Gordeev”, “Mother”, 1933, -), Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov (“ Golden Calf"), Miguel Cervantes ("Don Quixote").

A significant moment in the work was the military poster "We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!". He appeared on the June streets of Moscow one of the first - immediately after the attack of Hitler's Germany on the USSR.
The Kukryniksy went through the whole war: their leaflets accompanied the Soviet soldiers all the way to Berlin. In addition, the cycle of posters “Windows TASS” was very popular.

They became the classics of Soviet political caricature, which they understood as a weapon in the fight against a political enemy, and did not at all recognize other trends in art and caricature, which manifested themselves fully in the first place in the new format of the Literary Newspaper (department of humor "Club 12 Chairs" ). Their political cartoons, often published in the Pravda newspaper, belong to the best examples of this genre (“Ticks to Ticks”, “I Lost a Ring ...”, “Under the Eagle Backfired, Responded in Rome”, “Wall Haircut”, “Lion’s share”, a series of drawings “warmongers”, etc.). The team owns numerous political posters (“Transformation of the Fritz”, “Peoples warn”, etc.). The Kukryniksy are also known as painters and masters of easel drawing. They are the authors of the paintings "Morning", "Tanya", "The Flight of the Germans from Novgorod", "The End" (1947-1948), "The Old Masters" (1936-1937). They made pastel drawings - “I. V. Stalin and V. M. Molotov”, “I. V. Stalin in Kureika”, “Barricades on Presnya in 1905”, “Chkalov on Udd Island” and others.

Members of the team also worked separately - in the field of portrait and landscape.

Works and exhibitions

An extensive collection of artworks written by the Kukryniksy is collected in the private collection of the Mamontov family.

Since April 30, 2008, the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve has been exhibiting a posthumous exhibition dedicated to Victory Day “History through the eyes of the Kukryniksy. 1928-1945. Military poster. Caricature. Painting. Graphic arts"

Quotes

Our team, in truth, consists of four artists: Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov and Kukryniksy. All three of us treat the latter with great care and concern. What was created by the collective could not be mastered by any of us individually.

… Creative disputes happen in individual cases, but they do not violate the unanimity in the work. But it is joyful to see how some of our common work is enriched by bringing into it all the best that each of us has. And everyone contributes, not sparing and not saving for himself personally. In such work there should not be a painful self-love, an indifferent attitude.

Kemenov VS Articles about art. - M., 1965. - S. 104-105.

Kukryniksy in art

• Painting "Kukryniksy" (Portrait of People's Artists of the USSR M. V. Kupriyanov, P. N. Krylov, N. A. Sokolova) (1957)

Kukryniksy is the pseudonym of the creative team of three Soviet painters and graphic artists who worked together. It is composed of the first syllables of the surnames of Kupriyanov and Krylov, as well as the first syllable of the name and the first letter of the surname of Nikolai Sokolov. Three artists worked by the method of collective creativity. At the same time, everyone worked individually - on portraits and landscapes. They are best known for their numerous caricatures, caricatures and book illustrations.

The joint work of the Kukryniksy began in his student years at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. They came to Moscow from different parts of the country. Kupriyanov from Kazan, Krylov from Tula, Sokolov from Rybinsk. In 1922, Kupriyanov and Krylov met and began to work together as Kukry. Sokolov, still in Rybinsk, signed Nix on his drawings. Since 1924, the artists have been working together as the Kukryniksy. “Our team, in truth, consists of four artists: Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov and Kukryniksa. All three of us treat the latter with great care and concern,” the Kukryniksy write and emphasize: “What was created by the team could not be mastered by any of us individually. The pictorial talent of artists unfolded in full force during the Great Patriotic War. A significant moment in the work was the military poster "We will mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!". He appeared on the June streets of Moscow one of the first - immediately after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR. The Kukryniksy went through the whole war: their leaflets accompanied the Soviet soldiers all the way to Berlin. They continued Mayakovsky's tradition by creating posters for the TASS Windows series. They became classics of the Soviet political caricature, which was understood as a weapon in the fight against the enemy. How many times Hitler in the cartoons of Kukryniksov commanded skeletons and turned into a skeleton himself! How many times did Soviet cartoonists predict the end of the bloody adventure, how many times did they mark the "collapse" of the Reich! Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov - reflected the entire history of the Great Patriotic War, created famous caricatures of the rulers of the Third Reich. First, as a rule, a text appeared - something like “The bastard Hitler's plans are frustrated. However, he is not to blame for their failure, but the red fighters are giant heroes. On the posters, he, the reptile, was strangled, pierced with a sharp spear, shackled. Cartoons were another powerful weapon of ours and hit right on target. Napoleon was defeated, the same will be with the arrogant Hitler!

In Moscow kalachi,

Like fire is hot.

At night of fascist bastards

A hail of fireballs

Muscovites treat!

The exhibition, which opened in Moscow, is timed to the Victory Day. It is called "History through the eyes of the Kukryniksy." The team was awarded the Lenin Prize (1965), the Stalin Prize (1942, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951), the painting "The End" is the pinnacle in the painting of the Kukryniksy. This is the fruit of fiction, and at the same time it is the truth of art, based on a deep knowledge of life. An exceptionally important role in the history of this painting was played by the artists' trips to Berlin. So they descend into the dungeon of the Reich Chancellery, walk its gloomy corridors, see with their own eyes shell craters, sketch living Nazis, think ... All this nourished the imagination of artists, and thought worked in a certain direction. For a series of paintings dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War - "Tanya" (1942), "The End" (1948) and "The Flight of the Germans from Novgorod" (1944), the creative team was awarded the State Prize (1975). Their art remains topical in our time. Especially when NATO is on the offensive to the east! Note that all Kukryniksy are colonels of the Soviet Army. A characteristic sign of the times. The Kukryniksy worked together until their very old age, striking everyone with an amazing unanimity for a group of creative people. All paintings were saved and restored. Today, the works of artists made during the war years are in the same hands - from a private collector.