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

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