KUKRYNIKSY is 100 Years!
We present the material from the series of posts at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”, celebrating the centenary of this illustrious art collective!
2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the day when the first cartoon of Mihail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov, Porfiry Nikitich Krylov and Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov was printed in the magazine “Komsomolia” with their common signature “Kukryniksy”.
👉 Mihail Vasilyevich Kupriyanov [October 8 (21), 1903 – November 11, 1991]
👉 Porfiry Nikitich Krylov [August 9 (22), 1902 – May 15, 1990]
👉 Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov [July 8 (21), 1903 – April 17, 2000]
The “y” at the end is the Russian plural form — that is, “Kukrynikses” — preserved for the authenticity of the collective’s name.
Mihail Kupriyanov was born in the city of Tetyushi, Kazan province of the Russian Empire, Porfiry Krylov — in Tula, Nikolai Sokolov — in the village of Tsaritsyno, Moscow province, and his entire childhood and youth were spent in Rybinsk.
Young talented artists would hardly have had the opportunity to meet if it were not for the “Higher Art and Technical Workshops” (VHUTEMAS). In 1922, Kupriyanov and Krylov began working together in the wall newspaper of VHUTEMAS under the signature of Kukry and Krykup.
At the same time, Sokolov, while still living in Rybinsk, put the signature “Niks” on his drawings. In 1924, he joined Kupriyanov and Krylov, and the three of them worked in the wall newspaper of VHUTEMAS as Kukryniksy.
Our team, to tell the truth, consists of four artists: Kupriyanov, Krylov, Sokolov and Kukryniksy. All three of us treat the latter with great trepidation and care. What was created by the team could not have been mastered by any of us individually.
— Kukryniksy
The Exhibition in honour of KUKRYNIKSY
I do not know if there ever existed — and I do not think that in the field of caricature there could exist — such a “consubstantial and indivisible trinity” as our Kukryniksy.
— Maxim Gorky
On November 1, the exhibition “Kukryniksy”, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the formation of the union of three artists: Mihail Kupriyanov, Porfiry Krylov and Nikolai Sokolov, opened in the Central Exhibition Hall “Manege” of the State Museum and Exhibition Center “ROSIZO” with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives. The project, exploring the work of Kukryniksy, taking into account the chronology and diversity of their activities, combines 314 objects from the collections of Russian museums and private collections throughout Russia. Most of the works are shown for the first time.
The name “Kukryniksy” has become not only a collective pseudonym, but also a symbol of the genre of sharp political caricature, which brought the three artists worldwide fame. Using the cartoons of Kukryniksy, one can study the history of the Soviet state from its formation to the 1980s.
The creativity of the Kukryniksy is layered. The sarcasm of satirical graphics, the accusatory pathos of the poster, the ruthlessness of parodies, the playful gaiety of friendly cartoons, the intense psychologism of book illustration are shown interchangeably with the paintings of all genres – portrait, landscape, still life – with very personal experiences and poetic mood.
The exposition with an area of more than 2,000 sq.m. is located in 10 halls, dedicated to various periods of the artists’ work. The visitors can admire works created in the 20-30s, during the Great Patriotic War, sketches made during participation in the Nuremberg trials, cartoons from the Cold War and the arms race. The exhibits related to the work of artists in the theater, the “Krokodil” magazine and book illustration became a real revelation for most visitors. The images that eventually gained cult status made a particularly vivid impression – a poster created at the very beginning of the war “Let’s mercilessly defeat and destroy the enemy!”, paintings “Escape of the Fascists from Novgorod”, “Tanya”, “The End”, as well as illustrations for literary works and friendly caricatures of great contemporaries.
After the lifetime exhibition of artists in 1977, the project becomes the first exhibition of this scale.
The exhibition will be open until December 15, 2024.
The Virtual Tour of the “Kukryniksy” Exhibition
Even more information about Kukryniksy can be found at the “Educational Portal” created with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives.
There, the visitors can take a virtual tour through the “Kukryniksy” exhibition! Scroll down that site a little to see it.
KuKryNiksy
— The exposition review, written by “The Red Archivarius”:
The three-sided bayonet of Soviet satire.
A fearsome weapon.
However, why Soviet?
Of the whole humanity.
That’s right, isn’t it?
Moving through the halls of the grandiose exhibition in the Manege (ROSIZO bravo!!!), where and in what places do we feel a lump in our throat, the chilling grip of history? Almost everywhere…
The Windows of TASS. KuKryNiksy strike without mercy. Already on the fifth day of the Great War. The Germans, like a stinking reptile of tank wedges, are creeping into our borders. Minsk is dying in a fiery tornado. A ragged front is more like a nightmarish dream, in which the “plates” cut off by wires are wheezing continuously, “with little blood on enemy territory!”
But.
The KuKryNiksy, like the titans of old, calmly hold the firmament all by themselves — here is he, Hitler, the rat of rats, here they are, his henchmen, the degenerates of the human race, look, don’t say you haven’t seen them.
Our cause is right.
The enemy will be defeated.
The victory will be ours.
Kupriyanov-Krylov-Sokolov — as God showed with his finger: “You three are at this gate. Three together. Hold the brow!”
Has anything changed in our wonderful world? Haven’t the white gentlemen stopped exterminating the “spare upright people” for their own benefit and wild fun in Vietnam and Rhodesia? Is it???…
Here they are, revived in the newsreel, three at the gate, in the hall of the Nuremberg trials. Calm and inescapable, like the punishment of God. They make sketches of a rat pack beaten with bayonets in a corner.
What else do I need to say to all to go to the Arena — to pay tribute to those who stood firmly at their post, not giving passage to the enemy?
That they had an academic school?
That they exposed the vices of society, and not were just about the war?
That they were serious illustrators of the largest literary monuments?
That’s of no import.
Come and see.
And you will have happiness.
For happiness is not the lot of those who forget.
Kupriyanov-Krylov-Sokolov!
Pierce with a bayonet!
Hit them with the butt!
THREE AND ТHE FOURTH
— From Krokodil issue №6 of 1982 publication “My Veterans”, dedicated to “Kukryniksy”, by Boris Yefimov:
Try asking someone a question: what does the word “KUKRYNIKSY” mean? You will meet a cold, offended and even indignant look, as if saying: “Would you also ask what a 5-YEAR PLAN”, “TV” or “SPORTLOTO” is..?
But there was a time, I undertake to assert this, as a crocodile old-timer, when this word caused utter bewilderment. An exotic plant? A rare ocean fish? An Indian religious sect? And decoding it as a combination of the surnames of three young satirical artists – KUPRIYANOV, KRYLOV and Nikolai SOKOLOV — was a curious and funny surprise for many.
The history of this amazing and unique collective can perhaps be stated in the form of a brief and slightly mysterious parable: once upon a time there was One and once upon a time there was Another. Then there were Two of them. And when a Third soon joined them, a Fourth appeared to the world.
The three fell in love with the Fourth very much. They became attached to him with all their soul, generously, without reserve began to give him all the best, dear and cherished things that they themselves possessed — talent, wit, ingenuity, skill, hard work. The Fourth is very diligently and gratefully accepted these wonderful qualities, grew by leaps and bounds, went from success to success and soon became a famous artist who gained the widest popularity.
Thus, created and nurtured by the Three, the Fourth became a bright and independent personality, while remaining at the same time a consubstantial, inseparable, integral part of the Three. Mysticism? No, it’s just an amazing, unprecedented, unique case in the world history of art of such an organic fusion of three talents.
Indissoluble personal friendship, monolithic cementation of artistic principles, absolute unity of ideological and civic orientation, the deep coincidence of aesthetic views and positions in art, the remarkable affinity of humour inherent in each of the Kukryniksy — all this fused together and created a super-strong “alloy” of a unique, decades-tested creative community.
Mihail Kupriyanov, Porfiry Krylov and Nikolai Sokolov look very different from each other. But even in this dissimilarity there is some kind of harmony. When all three of them are together, they, if I may say so, are surprisingly well combined “compositionally”. This can be seen, at least by looking at their collective portrait created by P. Korin. And here is an interesting literary portrait from the pen of Boris Polevoy:
“…I saw the Kukryniksy for the first time in Nuremberg, in the meeting room The International Military Tribunal. I saw them from afar. And that’s how it happened. A few minutes before the gavel hit the table , three people entered the hall. In front, a little mincing, a small bald man, followed by a taller man, blue-eyed, with Yesenin’s curly head, and behind him a tall man walked leisurely on long legs, walking very straight, somehow carrying his head like a camel. All three had identical sticks under armpits. But the one in front of him seemed to have a huge folder, and the one behind him seemed to have a small one.”
— But how do they work together anyway? — the admires of the magnificent skills of the trinity are asking.— Which one of them is in charge? Who leads and who executes? Maybe someone comes up with plots, and the rest draw? Or vice versa?
The Kukryniks revealed the “secrets” of their creative laboratory a long time ago, vividly and interestingly telling about them in an excellent book, which is called “The Three of Us”. And it turned out: all three are in charge, they lead and execute everything, they invent everything and draw everything. Moreover, everyone corrects each other, everyone criticizes each other, sometimes they argue hotly, vigorously polemise, but in the end they come to a common agreement and a single decision. Now we know that this is exactly how the world-famous thrice-talented works of Kukryniks were created: magnificent striking cartoons, brilliant witty sketches, heartfelt book illustrations, and bright paintings.
I have a long and good friendship with Kukryniksy. For more than half a century, we have been working shoulder to shoulder in the Soviet satirical workshop, connected by many common memories, events, and trials of wartime. I remember well the first appearance of this peculiar trio, which immediately attracted universal sympathy, in the magazine “Spotlight”, published by newspaper “Pravda” in the mid-twenties, and then, some time later, their arrival to “Krokodil” in 1932, that is, in the year of the magazine’s tenth anniversary, which they marked with a large multi-figure drawing, called “The Crocodile Ship”. With a cheerful and mischievous resemblance, Kukryniksy depicted in this drawing the jubilee artists and writers of the magazine. There were D. Moore, M. Cheremnykh, V. Lebedev-Kumach, A. Radakov, Yu. Ganf, I. Ilf, E. Petrov, K. Rotov, V. Kozlinsky and others, headed by the editor of the magazine M. Manuilsky. There was everyone, except… Kukryniksy themselves. Apparently, out of excessive modesty, they did not consider it possible to place themselves among the “cadre” Crocodiles, although by that time they were already involved in the work of the magazine with their characteristic activity and enthusiasm. In addition to the fact that drawings of the Trinity regularly appear on the pages of Krokodil, Kukryniksy become members of the editorial board and in fact art editors of the magazine. They are invariably part of the Krokodil brigades that go out with satirical “raids” to the largest industrial enterprises. They draw satirical posters in the workshops, picking on the brash, truants, critic-blockers. Together with the poets, they create multicoloured “Crocodile Windows” on local thematic topics.
Years and decades passed. And every passing year contributed something new, valuable and significant to the “track record” of Kukryniksy, adding experience and skill to them, improving their ability to “see well and portray subtly”, expanding the range of their artistic interests. Their creative biography was enriched with more and more new works, which revealed the direct, blood involvement of their art in the anxieties, storms and achievements of the era, the responsibility of artists to their people.
One of the brightest and most impressive pages of Kukryniksy’s tireless artistic and journalistic activity was their work during the Great Patriotic War, as expressively described by the wonderful exhibition of posters, cartoons and “Windows of TASS” created by them, opened on the 40th anniversary of the great Battle of Moscow. Perhaps, the role and importance of fine art, and in particular satirical graphics, as an indispensable and effective propaganda weapon helping the people to defeat the enemy have never before been shown so powerfully and with such focus.
…Sixty years have flown by since the emergence of the famous collective. Misha, Porfisha and Kolya (note: here referenced by their familiar names) are still working together. But during this time, three gifted working boys from Tetyusha, Tula and Rybinsk became famous masters, people’s artists of the Soviet Union, Heroes of Socialist Labour, laureates of Lenin and State Prizes, and holders of many high government awards. Besides, I will not hide it, they also became grandfathers.
Countless articles, essays, scientific research, dissertations, and books have been written about them. I have written about them more than once. And once even in verse! This strange case occurred in 1953, when “Pravda” celebrated the 20th anniversary of Kukryniksy’s work and the editorial board of the Pravdist multi-issue asked me to respond to this anniversary. The verse has been preserved just in case, I have it, here it is:
TO KUKRYNIKSY
On the 20th anniversary of their work at Pravda
I’ve never written poetry in my life.
But in this case, I’m ready.
Although it’s hard, brothers, to get along with rhyme
(for Shvetsov *, let’s say, it’s another matter),
But that, it seems to me, is of more value
This poetic impulse is mine.
About three artist friends
I have written a lot in articles,
Praised both verbally and in print,
On many a time without tiredness
To set them as an example to the young,
Marvelling at their triple talents.
Today we sing praises again
And we honour them for that,
What is on the pages of glorious “Pravda”
They have been on guard for twenty years,
Enemies are being tirelessly smashed
Satire is accurate and funny.
And we need to congratulate together
That triune brigade,
Where from their earliest days
Every Kukrynik is dear to us —
Staid KU, crafty KRY
And, as always, cheerful NIKS.
And I, as all, am heartily glad
To congratulate this triumvirate.
Let this triad continue
Pierces the bastard without a miss
With triple strength and skill,
With triple tenacity and burning.
I’m in a hurry to finish the ode
(I’ll finish it in prose another time).
We greet our friends. Hurray!
It’s time for them to enter TWENTY-ONE.
— Boris Yefimov
* Shevtsov – was the satirical poet of “Krokodil” at that time.