Paweł Kuczyński (1976-present) is a Polish artist who draws sharp illustrations about the problems of contemporary Western society that hit the eye rather than the eyebrow. They are partly reminiscent of classic cartoons, but with a greater emphasis on satire: Kuczyński focuses on pseudo-democracy, the loneliness of modern man, when his best friend is social networks, and the status in them is more important than the real one, social inequality, the illusion of choice, etc.
The number of themes shown by Kuczyński is large and multifaceted, but one thing is invariable: an honest attempt to face the truth, even if someone really doesn't like it.
Kuczyński has been drawing his satirical cartoons since 2004 and has been repeatedly awarded the most prestigious international cartoonist awards. In total, he has about 140 different awards - more than any other artist working in this genre. Kuchinsky draws cartoons for those who, to paraphrase a great quote by Victor Pelevin: “don't find out what they are thinking by watching TV”, but try to figure things out for themselves.
That is why Kuczyński asks questions in his cartoons about how big politics is organized, who determines key decisions, about the place of the common man in it, and about how the common man actually makes certain decisions that determine his life.
Kuczyński admitted that his creativity is not only a job, but also a real passion, and he tries to devote as much time to it as possible. True, with the growth of popularity a lot of time is spent on all sorts of interviews and communication with fans, but he sees great pleasure in this as well. “It's worse when you just sit at home and no one notices you, you feel like that little man on whom nothing depends, like in my cartoons.”
Kuczyński started drawing since childhood, but “most people soon forget about this hobby, while I have to live with it”. After studying, Kuczyński tried many professions: he was a sculptor, graphic designer, artist, but decided to stop at social cartooning. He has always been attracted to work with illustrations, where the main thing is to correctly display an interesting idea in graphic form, which gives an unprecedented scope for creativity. He cooperates with many of the most reputable publications, illustrates books and music albums.
Kuczyński prefers to focus attention on global events and problems, for which he turns to symbols understandable to every educated person. His works are devoid of clouds with inscriptions, so proper symbolism is essential to reflect the idea behind the cartoon. It is, according to Kuchinsky, “the only code by which I address the audience.” For example, he depicted society as an obedient flock of sheep going to the green lawn, i.e. a check mark on the ballot.
Or the problem of over-exploitation of ordinary workers presented as a plowman behind a plow pulling a limousine with a Chinese flag.
Not always his works are very funny, Kuczyński said that for him it is more important to laugh through tears, and his main task, as in any good satire, he considers not to make the viewer laugh, but to think about any problems and about life in general.
And irony is a universal form that allows him to portray them without boredom or gloating. It is true that many of his works are often criticized, but Kuchinsky himself says that he will listen to criticism if it concerns only the artistic side of the matter, which is usually all right.
Usually he works on ideas at home, and only then comes to the studio to realize them. First he chooses an object to illustrate, then he looks for an idea of how best to represent it, and at the final stages he draws sketches, works on the composition and the general perception of the audience, so that everything is concise and understandable without words. By the way, Kuczyński doesn't like it when people try to add words to his illustrations or come up with captions for them. “These are finished works that do not require explanations,” says the artist.
The theme of loneliness and dependence on social networks is one of the key themes in Kuczyński's work. This is largely due to the peculiarities of the artist's own work: he has to spend a lot of time looking for interesting ideas and infodumps, and he himself becomes “a researcher of modern people and their habits”.
It reminds of the activity of a scientist studying the customs of primitive tribes, when each of their actions must be analyzed and tried to understand why and for what they do it. But this approach sometimes gives birth to interesting ideas, and this is the main thing for any cartoonist.
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