IT’S US: EXHIBITION OF IGOR SMIRNOV. GRAPHICS, CARICATURE

The Russian Academy of Arts presents a solo show of the Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Member of the French Academy of Humor Igor Smirnov. Entitled “It’s Us” the exhibition includes almost 80 caricatures and graphic easel works dedicated to the interaction between a man and society.

Igor Smirnov belongs to the generation of caricaturists of the 1960s-1970s and  was one of the representatives of the “new wave” of unofficial caricature.

His vocation as a cartoonist started when he made drawings for the student’s newspaper in the Art School of V. Surikov Moscow State Art Institute. Later, during his study in the Moscow Art College “In Memory of the Year of 1905” he was commissioned his first caricature for the Red Star newspaper (1971). The success of his first works and their appreciation by professional artists contributed to the interest of major Soviet editions in his caricatures. His original and humorous drawings were published in newspapers “Pravda”, “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Russian News”, “Obschaya Gazeta”,  in such magazines as  “Crocodile”, “New Time”, “Motherland”, “Journalist”, as well as foreign periodicals.

Caricatures of Igor Smirnov are dedicated to eternal themes of art – struggle of Good and Evil, poverty, injustice, global problems of these days. The artist’s aim is to introduce the viewer into a problem without imposing his own opinion. He does not ridicule but compares himself with a doctor for whom “the diagnosis is a professional duty”. The main weapons of the artist are a grotesque and metaphor which help him to create a complex matter that can be interpreted by each of the viewers in a different way.

The works of  Igor Smirnov have been shown  in major international exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Japan, Cuba, Philippines. The artist is a holder of many Russian and international honors and awards.





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