Topical caricatures of Alexei Merinov about life in Russia
“Unfortunately, I have a profession where the worse, the better,” the artist said about five years ago, and it is still relevant. Alexei Merinov has been drawing caricatures for many years and often shows the realities of our life as they are, not only without embellishment, but also enhancing the images.
Laughing at the realities of modern life is one of the favorite pastimes of compatriots. Everyone’s reasons are different, but jokes are always topical and relevant. Artist Alexei Merinov has his own view of Russian reality, and it is very ambiguous.
About The Author
Alexey began his professional career as a graphic designer in the construction department. His posters “don’t get in, he’ll kill you” and the like adorned a lot of objects. But it wasn’t enough. Soon Merinov tried himself in a new field – a cartoonist, illustrator. Thanks to the breadth of thoughts and views, a keen sense of satire and slightly blackish humor, Alexey’s sketches were to the taste of many publishers.
Merinov successfully collaborated with Komsomolskaya Pravda, Ogonyok magazine and other media. No one would ever have thought that such wonderful caricatures belonged to a self-taught. Yes, the Muscovite did not study the classical standards of drawing, everything he does comes from the heart and from the head.
Is politicking funny?
It is neither “popular” nor “deserved”, but it is recognized all over the world. Having a bunch of awards of various types and merits, having an incredible flair for changes in politics and social life, Merinov is like Zhvanetsky, the same “duty officer in the country”.
The scope of his topics is great, the flight of thought is immense. Such uncomplicated “gigantism” is most quickly and best felt through the titles of his cycles: “All Last”, “The Anger of Every Day” and the like immediately tell what will be drawn and what will be discussed.
As a cartoonist, Merinov believes that it is necessary to draw “clearly”, without unnecessary details, reflections on the plot and the author’s idea. The viewer must see the whole story, know its beginning and end. Such brevity makes you think through the images clearly and make the stories as convex and vivid as possible.
Merinov began to draw caricatures on political topics a long time ago. He was “lucky” to find a whole galaxy of rulers with characteristic features. For an artist, this is a huge field of activity. As the author himself recalls, he drew Chernomyrdin and others like him three or four times a day – it was very much in demand.
Today, not much has changed, the mentality of compatriots is such that it requires a constant outlet of emotions and the artist gives an opportunity to splash everything out through the prism of sharp satire.
Every comic strip and cartoonist is hit not in the eyebrow, but in the eye. Concise, not particularly “talkative” drawings tell about the sore point. If you watch them one by one, you get the feeling of a “guide to the realities”, peeling off the beautiful husk and exposing the core of thoughts and thoughts.
Perhaps that is why Merinov’s cartoons are not just popular, they are known all over the world. They are not recognized by their unique style, it is slightly “crocodile”, similar to all the classics of caricature from the Soviet times. Alexey’s comics are recognizable by their quotes. Capacious, they complement the drawings, make the plot complete. As the saying goes, you can’t add or subtract.
But don’t think that the author’s comics are boring and bilious politics, he makes it funny, “popular”. Merinov’s view of Russia is an amazing world of laughter, brightness and shameless boasting, not of virtues, but of flaws.
The artist is neither an optimist nor a pessimist, he is a realist. Over the years of his long life, the cartoonist has learned that the most useful thing is to laugh at himself. It helps to stop in the eternal race for benefits, think and, possibly, change something.
Watch Alexei Merinov’s caricatures and enjoy his amazing sense of humor, which is not given to every cartoonist.
