"Draw Putin is boring"

The next exhibition of the Kamchatka artist Denis Lopatin turned into a scandal: the visitor considered the caricature dedicated to the conflict around the film by Alexei Matilda, an insult to the feelings of believers and filed an application with the police (the author’s name and the name of the statement by the police were not disclosed).

A whole gallery of recognizable faces was presented at the exposition of Lopatin: Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Charles Darwin, Vladimir Lenin, Stephen Fry, Nikolai Valuev, Ramzan Kadyrov, Natalya Poklonskaya, Alexey Navalny, Victor Shenderovich, Dmitry Peskov and many others. In total, the audience this time saw more than 50 paintings by the artist. The authorities closed one of the previous exhibitions of Denis Lopatin, with the other the museum administration seized images of Putin and Medvedev.

-Denis, you were called somewhere on this statement about the insult of the feelings of believers, somehow this story is developing?

- The check, they say, are carried out. The police sent documents to the Investigative Committee, ordered an examination for insult. Nobody called me. I hope they stop the matter. Now, after this story, I want to help to pull people out from under the 148th article of the Criminal Code, at least something-public, moral support. By the way, I turned the exhibition on October 27, a week earlier than planning. There was too much fuss.

-Is it easy to open an exhibition with such caricatures in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky? There were no problems with the coordination and other administrative barriers?

- There were no agreements, simply because I had an absolutely perfect situation - a free person rents a premises from an entrepreneur who is not associated with any administrations. Formally, everything is simple: the entrepreneur provided the premises with one young lady who organizes an art center in this garage. There, in general, the instrument was lying at first, the jeep was dirty. They washed and cleared, now there is a bohemian club, the art quarter is real. The young lady gives this room to friends, familiar to fencers, teachers of singing, folk dancing. There is everything in the garage - flamenco, guitarists, and now the art exhibition has been added. It turned out a kind of bohemia nursery without any state support!

-A statement to the police was submitted to you because of the caricature of Natalia Poklonskaya and this whole situation with the film "Matilda". This is generally in a sense, probably a joy for a cartoonist, when there is such an absurdity that can be funny endlessly?

A patriotic film and an ultrapatriotic lady bite each other! And we, artists, have fun, yes. Well, just Poklonskaya - she is so enchanting that this character was sin to miss

- A patriotic film and ultrapatriotic is not very, let's say softly, a distant lady bite each other! And we, artists, have fun, yes. Well, just Poklonskaya - she is so enchanting that it was a sin to miss this character. I have most of my friends, seventy percent, Orthodox. And for many years I myself went to church in the nineties, and this supported me morally. But recently, such a desperate obscurant has come that decent people have already ceased to deal with the Church as an organization. But whoever is seriously believing, he is in itself Orthodox and remains, regardless of all these church structures that have turned into something opposite in essence. It is enough to look into the face of Poklonskaya, Patriarch, Archpriest Chaplin ... Several persons are still shining in the darkness, like Deacon Kuraev, for example, but soon they will go out, everything will be covered.

- And where is the boundaries of laughter for the artist? Can you laugh at everything?

- The artist should have freedom. And the editorial office should have freedom. And this is their free choice - what to laugh at. In my biography, the underground Anarchist newspaper "New", which I made another student in Minsk, was especially good in this regard. It was a real branch of Charlie Ebdo! We kept their binder, and I studied on them, not at the "Kukryniks". I was, and there is Charlie, and I will be Charlie. I followed them and studied with them. It was they who formed me as a newspaper cartoonist, in that Minsk anarchist newspaper. We have not grown even before the French level of understanding of humor, but they have their own millennia style. They developed it in the medieval mysteries, when the humor untwisted and frostbitten in their own way was practiced on the carnival. He migrated to their literary tradition from carnival squares, so they had a great Rabelais and much more!

I was, and there is Charlie, and I will be Charlie. I followed them and studied with them. It was they who formed me as a newspaper cartoonist

- But many in those days of the tragedy in the editors of Charlie said they crossed the borders ...

- It is not for us to judge them for the untruthfulness and frostbite, we would have grown to their freedom, the ability to irony and self -irony. I have been doing my favorite thing all my life, no one orders me and what to laugh at too. I do not go from nine to five to hard labor, but go from eleven to nine to draw my favorite pictures - and no one can order me what to laugh at. If you want to accept lack of freedom and what is imposed, this can, of course, teach yourself and even justify yourself. There were times when I made pictures to order, and noticed that when you draw not what you want, when it doesn’t go from the inside, then you draw badly. You can not engage in creativity without being a free person.

- How and when did your caricature on Kadyrov appear?

- In 2012, they turned to me from the Echo of Moscow, they offered to lead the blog on their site. And I tell them, let me draw an illustration for some of your top news? They agreed. And the first such picture was the portrait of Ramzan Akhmatovich, who shot his head, but nothing bad happened to him, he stands and smiles. And the signature was like this - "everyone can make the world a little better." "Echo" did not answer me anything and banned my account on my blogs. And then I already understood what the "echo of Moscow" is. They themselves offered a blog for me, I did not turn to them, well, and the dog with them! Now this work is in Cyprus, in Limassol. She was there at exhibitions and stayed with the cartoonist Igor Varchenko. I hope it will still be exhibited. And here, at a local exhibition, I already have a brand new Kadyrov, the work is called "apologize before the bitch" - on it is a hybrid Ramzan Kadyrov with his beloved dog Tarzan.

Here, at a local exhibition, I already have a brand new Kadyrov, the work is called "apologize to the bitch"

- And when you draw caricatures on him, are you not afraid of consequences?

- I think Kadyrov was not shown my caricature. His subordinates are afraid. After all, he will cut down what under a hot hand, like an oriental despot to a messenger who brought bad news.

- You have Zaldostanov, you didn’t write Milonov here?

- There is Milonov, but until he hung it, lying around. I focus on the reaction of people - they will learn less than Zaldostanov. A little liquid. By the way, both of these portraits were written for the magazine "Maxim" - that glossy, with bare aunts. There is a satirical section, and two years ago these characters were drawn to the elections.

- Five years ago, before the opening of your exhibition in the Kamchatka Regional Art Museum, his administration, without warning, withdrew several works from the exposition, including caricatures in Putin and Medvedev. Often this happened - so that caricatures disappear from the exhibition?

- There is an even more fun history of 2005. They prepared the exhibition normally. All work went out in Kamchatka and Vesti. Normally, then, they hung pictures, inserted into the frames, and I publish the poster. And the then governor communist Mashkovtsev was put this poster on the table. He suddenly freaked out. Because there was a picture behind the facet of the foul. In short, a family with toilets instead of heads watches a TV that broadcasts a bare ass that appears in front of a microphone. The then cultural minister Rebrov came to the exhibition, shouted for a long time and tore pictures from the walls. In two hours, he defeated everything. My employers, the owners of the newspaper, were not at a loss, unloaded the exposition into the car and hung it all in the "Press House". And they had fun gloriously, because the holding then also owned a television channel, and all Kamchatka recognized this story. Three thousand people came to see the paintings, the people were like on the bus, and we received a true drive and courage from what was happening. Our governor Mashkovtsev was not a crazy man and a reactionary, but a great fan of noise and PR, so he organized everything in such a way that he also provided a record at the exhibition, and he performed on TV, moralized. He is still a showman, leads the organization "Communists of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region", Klown is such a party.

- In Soviet times, everyone knew Kukrynikov, no matter how they treat them today. Why are there so few caricaturists known to the whole country now? This genre is still rather alive or not?

- In St. Petersburg there is a cohort of free cartoonists - the elite. Victor Bogorad, Vyacheslav Shilov and a whole list there ... Moscow works on a different principle. For example, Sergey Elkin in his media, Alexei Merinov at the Moscow Komsomolets, and they do not communicate among themselves. And in St. Petersburg - the clan: they regularly pick up, discuss, publish catalogs together. That is, there is a real bohemia. This is the only place where the bohemia of caricaturists exists - a circle of permanent and those living! Well, the Kukryniks were propaganda. Artists who received classical education, who exchanged art for service for money in propaganda. We were stuffed with kukryniks, because it was a condo propaganda. Good caricaturists were in exile.

- Is it possible to earn a living today by drawing caricatures?

- 95% of my drawings are portraits of simple, poor people. They don’t have enough gift for the birthday. They recall in a week, in two days, in one day ... And here in the memory it pops up that there is a familiar artist, find the phone, I draw a cartoon and get food for this. Most often with money, but it used to be calculated. My workshop is an apartment getting from my grandparents. Is there enough living? So everyone lacks. But you can feed. It is with cartoons and portraits. And the caricature, especially acute political, where will you attach today in Russia and to whom will you sell?

- Let's get back to the exposition. In my opinion, you got a funny sketch of Putin with Trump ...

- Yes, this is a caricature based on "only girls in jazz", they dance tango with Putin. Trump is there in the image of a young lady. He is generally a bright figure. And in people this fun picture causes only positive emotions. By the way, there is another drawing that depicts Putin's audience with Mahatma Gandhi.

As objects for carications, they are disgusting. Most cause disgust, something like a hangover arises from them. You have to wash your brushes thoroughly

- How much representatives of the Russian higher authority, in particular Putin himself, are interesting to you as an object of creativity?

- As objects for carications, they are disgusting. Most cause disgust, something like a hangover arises from them. You have to thoroughly wash the brushes. Yes, among them there are bright personalities who work with clowns under Putin, such as Zhirinovsky, but the main characters to draw is disgusting and boring, they are so inexpressive. Everything is very dull. I mean precisely their media images, what we know about them from the Internet, ”said Denis Lopatin, Kamchatka artist Denis Lopatin, in an interview with Siberia. Reali.

Lopatin was born in Minsk in 1977, graduated from the architectural and construction college, receiving the profession of a designer. Then he studied at the Belarusian State University of Culture, where he became certified by art. On the second day after completing his studies, he flew to Kamchatka, where he lives to this day.