The 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) ...
The pseudonym "Kukryniksy" is made up of the first syllables of the surnames of Kupriyanov and Krylov, as well as the first three letters of the name and the first letter of the surname of Nikolai Sokolov. Artists have always worked together, this was the phenomenon of their collective creativity. The most famous "Kukryniks" brought numerous skillfully executed cartoons, cartoons, posters and book illustrations, created in a characteristic satirical style.
The joint work of the Kukryniksy began in his student years at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. In the Moscow VKHUTEMAS artists came from different parts of the USSR. Kupriyanov from Kazan, Krylov from Tula, Sokolov from Rybinsk. In 1922, Kupriyanov and Krylov met and began to work together in the VKHUTEMAS wall newspaper as Kukry and Krykup. At this time, Sokolov, while still living in Rybinsk, put the signature of Nyx on his drawings. In 1924, he joined Kupriyanov and Krylov, and since then the three of them have worked as Kukryniksy.
At the beginning of the creative path in the group there was a search for a new unified style using the skill of each of the authors. The first to fall under the pen of cartoonists were the heroes of literary works. Later, when the Kukryniksy became permanent employees of the Pravda newspaper and the Krokodil magazine, they were mainly engaged in political caricature.
An important role in the patriotic education of Soviet people was played by cartoons, posters and "Windows TASS" created by the Kukryniksy during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, combining evil satire and heroism in symbolically generalized images ("We will mercilessly crush and destroy the enemy!", 1941) ... The post-war works of the Kukryniksy, which exposed the warmongers, imperialists, enemies of peace and socialism, also have significant political power. For political cartoons and posters, Kukryniksy was awarded the USSR State Prize (1942) and the Lenin Prize (1965).
The works of the Kukryniksy are in almost all major museum collections in Russia; The State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian State Library, Rybinsk and Yaroslavl State Historical and Architectural Art Museum-Reserves, the Tula Museum of Fine Arts, private collections in Russia and abroad.
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Campaign postcards and posters from the times of the Great Patriotic War are known to the modern generation as museum and exhibition exhibits, from the relevant thematic publications and films. The most accurate and memorable works of this cycle were created by the artists of Kukryniksy. The community of these young people is a rare combination of talent, common interests, mutual support and complementarity. The authorship of this group belongs not only to graphic works. The Kukryniksy equally successfully created paintings, illustrations for literary publications, tried themselves in the design of theatrical scenery and sculpture. Who were these talented people?
How was Kukryniks born?
Talented young artists Kupriyanov, Krylov and Sokolov started their art career in different ways, and their first teachers and schools were completely different, and were born in different cities. They met within the walls of the Higher State Artistic and Technical Workshops, abbreviated as VKHUTEMAS. At first, Kupriyanov and Krylov became friends. Their funny caricatures and cartoons decorated student newspapers and signed the names of Krykul or Kukry. "Nyx", or Nikolai Sokolov, joined the guys two years later, then his initials were added to the anagram.
Joint creativity
The merry trinity became known to the wider public after the beginning of work in the magazine "Komsomoliya", the editor-in-chief of which was the famous poet Zharov. It was in 1924. The guys created cartoons and funny satirical drawings easily. It looked something like this: one took a sheet and began to draw, then the drawing was passed from hand to hand. What came out in the end, admired and came out brilliant.
After a while, many celebrities began to order friends cartoons. The first five-year plans, the construction of a new state economy, carried away the friends. They traveled around the country, themes for creativity became more serious than a light joke. Artists Kukryniksy in a satirical form denounced unscrupulous performers, the political situation around the Land of Soviets.
The propaganda work during the Great Patriotic War brought particular popularity to the team. Many events took place in the lives of the artists themselves and in their environment, but the trio managed to maintain their community until 1990 and broke up only after the death of Krylov. The Kukryniksy are called the founders of a new direction in art - publicistic graphics.
Mikhail Kupriyanov (1903-1991)
A talented boy was born on the banks of the Volga, in the small town of Tetyushi. As a child, his watercolor landscape won an award at a city exhibition. The events of the turbulent revolutionary time were not conducive to artistic pursuits - it was necessary to survive in a new environment. This circumstance threw Misha Kupriyanov into the coal mines of Turkestan.
But a lucky chance brought him together with people who considered talent and sent the guy to study at an art boarding school, and after graduation - to VKHUTEMAS. Kupriyanov's brushes belong to several successful landscapes, but most of all he was drawn to the funny and funny. It is no coincidence that an equally cheerful comrade met on his way.
Porfiry Krylov (1902-1990)
Unlike his new acquaintance, Porfiry was seriously attracted to watercolor painting; at VKHUTEMAS he graduated from a course in this particular specialization. The son of a Tula arms factory worker amazed the university teachers with his youthful work. Krylov's strong point is warm and sensual landscapes. In later works, Krylov appeared - a portrait painter. It was this artist who was entrusted with making portrait sketches of the criminals of fascism at the Nuremberg trials. But with all these talents, it was the Kukryniksy community, the work of a graphic artist, cartoonist, decorator, illustrator, that brought the artist the greatest popularity.
"Knicks"
Like the rest of the famous troika, Nikolai Sokolov (1903-2000) came to the schedule of his own, distinguishing from the rest, dear. What was common to all students of the art workshop was their passion for their favorite pastime from early childhood. Sokolov was no exception. A gift from his mother, a box of watercolors, he considered the most vivid and exciting childhood memory. The boy came to the art studio while working as a clerk in the Rybinsk Department of Water Transport. It was then that an active young man showed interest in displaying events of public life in the form of posters, leaflets, posters. It is not surprising that this hobby brought Sokolov together with Kupriyanov and Krylov. So the Kukry was supplemented by Nyx.
Graphics Kukryniksy
The Union of Gifted Creative People gave the world an unsurpassed master of publicistic graphics and artistic satire. There was no such event in the country and in the world, starting in the thirties of the last century, to which the artists of Kukryniksy would not have responded. Their humorous cartoons on everyday topics are still very popular. The talent of friends in propaganda leaflets and posters of the Second World War was especially valuable. The graphics of that period are striking in their accuracy and ability to raise the morale of the army.
Individual painting
Despite more than half a century of close cooperation, the artists of Kukryniksy kept each their individual vision of the world. Both jointly created paintings and individual works of each master became valuable works of painting. After them, no one has yet managed to create such a team where the peak of joint popularity would be reached and the uniqueness of individuality was preserved.
The famous Soviet poet Alexander Zharov recalls that in 1925, when he was the editor of a youth magazine, three students-artists once came to his office and offered their services. “What can you draw?” Asked Zharov. Then the young people immediately got down to business and, in the process of handing over the drawing to one another, they quickly sketched several apt cartoons on the writers who were present, which caused general admiration. Since then, sharp and expressive drawings of young authors, signed by the composite surname of Kukryniksy, began to appear regularly in the magazine.
This was at the dawn of the joint creative activity of the talented Soviet artists Mikhail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov, Porfiry Nikitich Krylov and Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov.
The creativity of the Kukryniksy amazes with its diversity. Thoughtful artists work with inspiration and persistence on large paintings, caricatures, posters, book illustrations and even on sculptural portraits, achieving high results in every art form. The extraordinary relevance of the subject matter, the ideological orientation and clarity of the content, the originality and laconicism of the artistic language - these advantages of the Kukryniksy works, clearly visible to everyone, make them understandable to the widest circle of Soviet viewers and readers.
Caricatures of artists Kukryniksy
Being gifted painters, the Kukryniksy, first and foremost, are the most prominent masters of Soviet political graphics and artistic satire. It is difficult to name even one significant event in international life, from the 1930s to the present day, that would not evoke a corresponding response in their work.
At one time, the cartoons of the Kukryniksy mercilessly exposed the conspiracy of the imperialist powers against the republican Spain, the preparations for the Second World War ("Scheme of strict control of the Spanish borders", "Continuation of the last war" and others). In these, as in all other works, artists act as spokesmen for the views and interests of our people, who are tirelessly fighting for world peace.
Kukryniksy performs with equal success in the region household satire... Their blows are directed against everything obsolete, inert and ugly, which hinders the movement of the Soviet people towards a wonderful future. From the extensive cycle of works by the Kukryniksy on everyday topics, the series "Transport", drawings "No exit day off", "Memorandum", "Toadstools" (about young people servile to foreignism) should be distinguished.
The Kukryniksy cartoons are so unique in form that the viewer immediately recognizes their authors, without even looking at the signature. Inexhaustible in artistic invention and ingenuity, the Kukryniksy are able to recreate in front of us the appearance of one or another political degenerate (Stolypin, Kerensky, Wrangel) in several bold and precise lines, show the typical in the images of a bureaucrat, eyewash, grabber. The perfection of Kukryniksov's graphics is a vivid example of the great importance of collectivity in creativity: each of the artists offers his own solution to the topic, in the process of discussion, all the best is selected from them, and then all the efforts of the team are directed to working out the final version.
WWII posters in the work of the Kukryniksy
Still fresh in our memory are the numerous posters in TASS Windows, created by the Kukryniksy in the harsh years of the struggle against the fascist invaders: “We will mercilessly crush and destroy the enemy!” " other. Meeting the most pressing tasks of the time, extremely expressive, they were a powerful ideological weapon, giving even more strength to the Soviet soldiers at the front and the working population in the rear.
On the pages of Pravda, Krokodil and other Soviet publications, sharp caricatures of the Kukryniksy always appeared, nailing the troubadours of the Cold War and their accomplices to the pillory. In 1958-1959, the cartoons "The Berlin Question", "The Militant Parrot" and others were published. In 1960, No. 2 of The Crocodile, dedicated to the memory of A.P. Chekhov, one remembers the witty cartoon "Intruder on an International Scale": the West German Chancellor Adenauer diligently unscrews the nuts from the rails, which have the sign "To peaceful coexistence"
Paintings by artists Kukryniksy
Veliky Novgorod in January 1944. Against the background of a gloomy sky, the majestic bulk of the St. Sophia Cathedral rises. Fragments of the barbarously destroyed monument “Millennium of Russia” stick out from under the snow. Near the buildings, Hitler's warriors are scurrying about with torches. Forced shamefully to flee the ancient city under the mighty blows of the Soviet Army, they, in impotent rage, are trying to destroy the priceless treasures of Russian culture.
This is the content of the well-known kukryniksy paintings "Flight of the Nazis from Novgorod". Despite the dramatic tension of the moment, well conveyed by the contrasts of dark and light spots, the picture is imbued with an optimistic mood. The artists managed to show in it the utter doom of the degenerates who intended to enslave our socialist homeland.
Other paintings by the Kukryniksy, dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War - "Tanya", "Pravda", "The End" are also imbued with a patriotic feeling.
In the last picture, the inglorious death of Hitlerism is shown in images of great artistic power, in the defeat of which the Soviet Union played a decisive role.
Illustrating the works of Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Chekhov and Gorky, the artists strive to fully reveal to the reader the humanistic orientation of the great Russian literature. The most successful in this respect are Kukryniksy's drawings for Gogol's "Overcoat", Chekhov's stories "Tosca" and "I Want to Sleep".
It should be noted that each of the Kukryniksy has a bright creative personality and works a lot independently. Thus, M. Kupriyanov is especially fascinated by the landscapes of the Moscow region and the Volga, P. Krylov performed many portraits and perfectly conveyed the picturesque originality of Paris, Rome and Venice, and N. Sokolov lovingly depicts the life of his native Moscow and the touching beauty of Russian nature. Continuously enriching their knowledge and experience, the artists combine them in one or another general idea, persistently striving for ever greater completeness of the plot and its artistic embodiment in each new work.
How many artists are Kukryniksy?
What does the pseudonym "Kukryniksy" mean - decryption
* The pseudonym "Kukryniksy" is composed of the first syllables of the surnames of Kupriyanov and Krylov, as well as the first three letters of the name and the first letter of the surname of Nikolai Sokolov.
Years of life
* Mikhail Vasilievich Kupriyanov 1903-1991
Porfiry Nikitich Krylov 1902-1990
Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov 1903-2000 (source - Wikipedia)
Tags: biography and work of artists Kukryniksy.
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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 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. Moreover, everyone worked individually - on portraits and landscapes. They are best known for their numerous cartoons, cartoons and book illustrations.
The joint work of the Kukryniksy began in his student years in 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 Nyx on his drawings. Since 1924, the three artists worked as Kukryniksy. “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, "write the Kukryniksy and emphasize:" What was created by the team, could not be mastered by any of us individually. The painterly talent of artists developed in full force during the Great Patriotic War. The military poster "We will mercilessly crush and destroy the enemy!" Became a significant moment in his work. He was one of the first to appear on the June streets of Moscow - 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 cycle. They became classics of Soviet political caricature, which they understood as a weapon in the fight against the enemy. How many times Hitler in the Kukryniksy cartoons commanded skeletons and turned into a skeleton himself! How many times did Soviet cartoonists predict the end of the bloody adventure, how many times they celebrated the "collapse" of the Reich! Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov - reflected the entire history of the Great Patriotic War, created the famous cartoons of the rulers of the Third Reich. At first, as a rule, a text appeared - something like “The bastard Hitler's all plans are thwarted. It is not he, however, who is 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 they hit right on target. Napoleon was defeated, the same will happen with the arrogant Hitler!
In Moscow, rolls,
As the fire is hot.
At nights of fascist reptiles
A hail of fiery shells
Muscovites are treating!
An exhibition opened in Moscow is timed to coincide with the Victory Day. It is called "History through the eyes of the Kukryniksy". The collective was awarded the Lenin Prize (1965), the Stalin Prize (1942, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951), The End is the pinnacle of the Kukryniksy painting. This is the fruit of fiction, and at the same time, it is the truth of art, based on a deep knowledge of life. Travels of artists to Berlin played an extremely important role in the history of this painting. So they descend into the dungeon of the Reich Chancellery, walk its gloomy corridors, see with their own eyes the craters from the shells, sketch the living Hitlerites, reflect ... All this fed the imagination of the artists, and the 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 advancing east! Note that all Kukryniksy are colonels of the Soviet Army. A characteristic sign of the times. Kukryniksy worked together until old age, striking everyone with unanimity, surprising 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 - at a private collector.
In 1932, Muscovites saw the posters of the first exhibition of the artist with a strange name - Kukryniksy. But, although the exhibition was the first, many already knew that the Kukryniksy were Mikhail Kupriyanov, Porfiry Krylov and Nikolai Sokolov. Their creative collaboration began in the mid-1920s. within the walls of VKHUTEMAS (Higher art and technical workshops). It began with a student wall newspaper, an exhibition of isoparody art of those years, and then continued on the pages of newspapers and magazines.
Maxim Gorky drew attention to the artists. In the introductory article to the catalog of the first exhibition of the Kukryniksy, he called them "consubstantial and indivisible trinity." A sign of the writer's trust was the assignment to young artists to make illustrations for the novel The Life of Klim Samgin.
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| Maxim Gorky at the Kukryniksy exhibition in 1932 |
The Kukryniksy are artists of an extremely wide range; they are subject to easel painting, caricature, illustration, poster art, sculpture, and stage design. But the most popular is the satirical graphics of the Kukryniksy. In the 1930s, their cartoons and humorous drawings-cycles "Old Moscow", "Household pests", "Transport", "Hot flushing" were extremely popular. Addressing topical issues, the artists won the love of Soviet citizens.
And yet the main thing in the work of the Kukryniksy is a political poster and a political caricature.
The publicistic talent of the Kukryniksy was revealed with extraordinary force during the Great Patriotic War. The poster "We will mercilessly crush and destroy the enemy" appeared on the streets on June 24, 1941. Their posters and cartoons of the war years are a bright page of Soviet art. They called for the fight, aroused hatred for the enemy. Drawings were accompanied by laconic text or poems. Their authors were the poets S. Marshak, D. Bedny.
The most significant achievements of the Kukryniksy in the field of thematic painting are associated with the theme of the Great Patriotic War. Having visited the place of death of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the artists paint the picture "Tanya". The canvas "The Flight of the Fascists from Novgorod" is also written on the material collected when visiting those places. But their most famous painting was “The End. The last days of Hitler's headquarters.
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| Tanya |
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| The end. Hitler's final days |
After the war, the Kukryniksy worked in the field of illustration. For many generations of readers, the images they create are inseparable from the literary heroes of the books they have designed.
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| Illustrations for Gogol's stories |
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| Illustrations for the story "Levsha" |
