Saturday 27 February 2016

Krokodil and Russian folklore

Krokodil cartoons very often employed folkloric characters and themes. Soviet graphic satire owed much to pre-revolutionary popular prints, and in some cases, Krokodil images were composed in the graphic style of Russian folk arts. In other cartoons, Soviet satirical commentary was enacted by Russian folk tale characters.
Krokodil 1963, No.7, page 1.


Krokodil 1962, No.4, p.14.
Russian folk characters were thus reimagined in a modern satirical context, and the combination of discourses created unique visions of both old and new. Stalinist folklore/'fakelore' (Dorson 1950) co-opted folk heroes in the service of the Soviet state, but Krokodil's use of these characters was satirical and thus markedly different.

Krokodil 1957, no.34, p.8-9.
Ded Moroz and Snegoruchka also commonly appeared in Soviet satire, celebrating the turn of the New Year, or warning about the change in seasons.

Krokodil 1958, No.1, p.2
Countless cartoons visualised anthropomorphised animals, but a number of images also referred to less famous Russian folk tales.

Krokodil 1960, No.22, p.3
Perhaps the most frequent appearances were made by Il'ia Muromets.

Krokodil 1956, No.17, p.1

Krokodil 1964, No.9, p.15

Krokodil 1964, No.29, p.1
Contrary to most scholarly assumptions, that Krokodil was unambiguously propagandistic and that its content was always either entirely anti-Western and pro-Soviet, the use of historical figures in images related to contemporary events injected a destabilising element into the images' meaning.





Wednesday 15 July 2015

кино крокодил


Kino Krokodil Мук Мультипликационный крокодил 1


Мук Мультипликационный крокодил 2


Мук Мультипликационный крокодил 3 was not preserved, it seems.


Мук Мультипликационный крокодил 4


Мук Мультипликационный крокодил 5


Мук Мультипликационный крокодил 6
 

Monday 29 June 2015

Rainbow warriors



Also interesting that both the pro- and less pro-Putin Twitter are using the same visual methods to make opposite political points.

https://twitter.com/DarthPutinKGB/media
 
 
Embedded image permalink
https://twitter.com/KremlinResident

Студия 13



https://ugc-about.futurelearn.com/wp-content/uploads/freedom-american-style-svoboda-po-amerikanski.jpg
 
The work of Студия 13 is very interesting. In more than one way it's reminiscent of Krokodil imagery, as these two cartoons illustrate. Studiia 13 appear to be a project founded and supported by MGER, Молодая гвардия, the youth wing of United Russia, and interestingly, they were behind the "Without Filters" («Без фильтров») exhibitions earlier this year.

The influence of Soviet-era graphic satire is very clear, in my view, although some of Studiia 13's methods employ much more crudeness than Krokodil, and much less grotesque.

https://vk.com/13studiya
http://mger2020.ru/projects/2014/12/23/77226
 

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Krokodil's politics in The Thaw

Krokodil always engaged with topical discourses, and in the period of relative artistic freedom after Stalin's death the magazine published a variety of cartoons on various themes, including aspects of domestic politics.

Lekarstvo gor'koye, no dlya zdorov'ya neobkhodimoye. Krokodil, 1953, 20 March, p.7.
Dostukalsya. Krokodil 1956, 28 February, p.11.
Zavodoupravlenie v 19.. godu. Krokodil. 1959, 30 June, p.2.
Untitled. Krokodil, 1959, 10 Dec, p.1
Tvorcheskaya neudacha. Krokodil, 1964, 30 November, p.1.
Untitled. Krokodil, 1963, 30 April, p.8.
V mire biurokraticheskaya nauki i tekhniki. Krokodil, 1962, 10 September, p.2-3.

I tak byvaet. Krokodil, 28 February, p.6.
Untitled. Krokodil 1964, 10 December, p.14.
Untitled. Krokodil, 1964, 20 Aug, p.1.
Zakoldovannyi krug. Krokodil 1964, 10 December, p.14.





Monday 27 January 2014

Satirical magazine avatars, mascots, characters, and personifications

Krokodil's red crocodile functioned as a symbol for the magazine, but also a character in some of its images and the imagined editor of the publication. Other magazines had/have similar avatars. I'm interested in whether any scholarly study has considered this phenomenon.

Punch magazine's Mr Punch.


Simplicissimus's bulldog


Private Eye's knight


Krokodil's red crocodile


Wednesday 22 May 2013

Vladimir Mochalov exhibition: Portraiture and Caricature in Graphic Art and Painting

Exhibition of Mochalov caricatures at the Russian Academy of Artists in Moscow.

Портретная карикатура в графике и в живописи
21.05.2013 - 09.06.2013



http://new.rah.ru/exhibitions/detail.php?ID=28515

Krokodil and Russian folklore

Krokodil cartoons very often employed folkloric characters and themes. Soviet graphic satire owed much to pre-revolutionary popular prints...