Cartooning was a genre that was very popular in Soviet times and in the 90s, when every self-respecting newspaper and magazine considered it necessary to include one or more cartoons in each issue. After that, cartoons appeared less and less in print - perhaps because of censorship or because they were no longer so relevant. Although internet memes and demotivators are really a simplified version of cartoons. However, there are still artists working in this genre, one of the most famous and talented being Andrey Popov.
When we look at his works, which, unlike many classic caricatures, are in colour, we see that the author mocks his characters a little, but at the same time looks at them with good-natured irony, giving them a chance to improve. They are similar to sketches from our lives, the purpose of which is to use humour to point out small faults and peculiarities, but not to "burn with napalm", not to present everything in a negative light, as many cartoonists sometimes did in the 90s - early 2000s.
Andrey Popov's cartoons contain a lot of love and sympathy for the characters depicted in them, they do not arouse any strong negative feelings - not because of censorship considerations, but simply because of the artist's own perception of life. Although Andrey Popov's path to art was not an easy one, at one point he abruptly changed his profession and his way of earning a living. In this article we will tell you about the talented cartoonist and his works.
Andrey Popov was born in Tashkent. His father was a military man, and when Andrey was growing up, his father's profession determined his choice of educational institution. But first there was a children's art school, where Andrey learned the basics of drawing at an early age. It was there that he remembered his teacher Yakov Frumgarts' favourite saying: "The main thing in a picture is not beauty, not technique, but expressiveness". That is to say, the teacher did not insist on complex academic techniques, did not try to force everyone to draw in the classical style of realism, as is usually the case in any art school, but tried to teach to reflect in paintings their vision of the world, their emotions and impressions. Impressionism and Surrealism were much closer to him than mossy academicism, and he taught children to draw in this way. Of course, he also taught composition and perspective, everything an artist needs to know.
At the children's art school there was a boy who drew various humorous caricatures very well, which stood out among the other works. Andrey then decided that if he was going to draw, he would draw only cartoons, to make people smile and laugh, and to point out various shortcomings in an unobtrusive way.
However, on the recommendation of his father, who wanted his son to have a more solid specialisation than frivolous caricature drawing, Andrei entered the Mozhaisky Military Engineering and Space Institute. But he did not give up painting - as an amateur he made satirical sketches of his classmates, which were very successful. After graduating from the institute, he served three years in the army, where he drew his fellow soldiers and was not afraid to caricature his commanders. That's when he got caught - a military commander didn't like the budding cartoonist's appearance and attitude, which in his opinion was too free, and so he called Andrei to the "carpet", thoroughly counted him out, gave him several orders out of turn, and then asked him to draw official cartoons to decorate various stands.
After the army, Andrey had to choose a career. It was 1995, no one needed military engineers then, the army was financed on a residual basis, but all sorts of cartoonists had a free hand - censorship had not weighed on them for 5 years, they could draw whatever they wanted, and any cartoons, preferably sharper and more frank, were happily published by all newspapers and magazines.
Popov began working for the St Petersburg newspaper Delovoy Peterburg, drawing cartoons on various news items. He was artistically talented, so his work had a certain success, and the position of full-time cartoonist was firmly established for him. Andrei Popov worked for the newspaper for ten years, until 2005. Then the concept of the publication changed - sharp topical cartoons were no longer needed for censorship reasons, and the style of presenting material changed. Higher officials did not really like the mocking images they saw in newspapers and magazines, and the times of uncensored freedom of the 90s were already over.
However, Andrey Popov continued to draw cartoons, but in a slightly different style. He began to post his cartoons on the Internet, but he had to change the concept a little to make them interesting for the main audience of the World Wide Web. Most young internet users weren't interested in harsh political satire, but they were attracted to drawings "with a geek", i.e. with a clear humorous subtext and joke. People wanted to visit sites with funny drawings to have a good laugh and not worry about the next day's problems and worries.
But in his caricatures Popov went beyond ordinary humour and pure entertainment. He tries to look at the world and various phenomena of our life from an unexpected and somewhat contradictory point of view, to take the depicted situation to the point of absurdity, but at the same time to find some philosophical components in it. His drawings are often from the point of view of a detached and friendly philosopher, who sees various oddities, absurdities and shortcomings in our lives, but is willing to accept them if they do not cause any great harm to anyone. He ridicules them, plays them up in an ironic key, but does not sound the alarm, does not paint everything in black and white. Perhaps this is why the colour palette in his caricatures is so important - often warm, muted tones, combined with a masterly play on the humorous situation in the drawing, make for a light-hearted viewing experience.
The artist himself considers his drawings to be caricatures, despite the opinion of some art critics that he has outgrown the genre. According to him, caricatures are multifaceted, like a person's smile - they can be evil, satirical, mocking, or kind, even a little sad, like laughing through tears. In recent years, he has moved away from the classic one-day newspaper cartoons on specific current events and has tried to draw on eternal themes that are still interesting to most viewers. And most importantly, Popov says, a cartoon should not be dark and frightening, it should always give people hope, so that they laugh, take note of something, but never despair.
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