In this book, Kabakov renders interiors, human figures, and landscapes in every possible shade of black ink, with white dots to show the incidence of light and backgrounds fading into gray. These dark, painterly scenes are unique not only in Kabakov’s corpus of children’s book illustrations, but in his entire artistic oeuvre (fig. 5).
All in all, the children’s books show many very different styles of illustration. If you didn’t know better, you might think that the drawings in one book were done by one artist and those in the next by another. Kabakov’s artistic universe expanded to include a varied repertoire of possibilities in execution.18 One more example of a completely different illustration will have to do here. The illustrations in “The Great Battle by the Small Pond,” for example, are a kind of comic-strip drawings (fig. 6).19 The emphasis here is on the lines, with black areas here and there. The scenes have less depth and are more decorative in character.
19 Oktav Panku-Lash, Velikaia Bitva u Malogo Pruda (Moscow: Detgiz, 1957).
The fact that these “dialogues” with the censor gave rise to a number of very different types of illustrations has been mentioned several times by the artist himself, as well as by various authors. What is generally overlooked is that, along with these different styles, Kabakov developed a preference for one particular and successful style over the years. As with handwriting, it is
Fig. 5
Kabakov also paints in different styles. For this, see: Willem Jan Renders, “Whose Painting Is This?,” in Ilya Kabakov: Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings 2008–2013 (Bielefeld: Kerber Verlag, 2013), 21–27.
impossible to avoid developing certain characteristics in drawing. The more you draw, the more personal the drawing becomes. And at the same time, it becomes more difficult to write in a different way or to use a different style. The censors liked what Kabakov was drawing, so he kept going. In an interview with Joseph Backstein, Kabakov calls this “the general style”:
“Having mastered this… I noticed that it gave me the opportunity to draw things in general which in other cases require thorough study. With such an approach it turned out to be possible to draw something in general ‘from the Middle Ages,’ something in general ‘technical,’ even something from the kingdom of animals and plants. I drew not a specific tractor but rather something in general ‘tractor-like,’ similar to all tractors simultaneously…” 20
21
Along with a way of handling the subject matter, there came a way of executing the drawing. The “inner” and “outer” design were successfully combined, resulting in drawings from memory. It is in the later children’s books that we see this “general style” emerge. Kabakov also calls it an “individual signature.” In “Auntie Toothache,” for example, the characters and their surroundings are drawn in sharp but sketched ink lines.21 The areas within these lines are filled with bright colors and shades. Whole scenes jump playfully out of the books (fig. 7). Here, as in most of the later children’s books, we see Kabakov’s typical style of drawing. So far, the element “behind” these Kabakov drawings has not been discussed: the text. All the drawings for children’s books would be unthinkable without text; they are illustrations for stories written by someone else. They were discussed at length because they show how his drawings
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
20 Interview of Joseph Backstein with Ilya Kabakov in: Kabakov, Illustration as a Way to Survive, 24–30.
Suzanna Georgievskaia, Tetushka Zubnaia Bol (Moscow: Detskaia Literatura, 1972).
1 Ivan Petrovich Rybakov…
44.7 × 36.7 cm
Ed. 30
Published in Bratislava, Slovakia
Ivan Petrovich Rybakov: May I put the stool in the corner and sit here?
Nikita Efimovich Ershov: Please.
Now, I won’t have time to go to Anne’s, she certainly has a break which lasts till lunch…
If I am the first to break the pyramid then I almost always win…
…And it was just rolling and rolling…
…Volodya, he has reached the unknown for which everyone wants to be distinguished without losing any of his achievements…
Ilya Kabakov with Michail Grobman
Portfolio of 6 lithographs printed on rives 250 GR, in gray linen-covered portfolio:
5. Generalissimo (1964) – 6. Medal-Decorated Russia (1964)
Each 56 × 76 cm / 76 × 56 cm
Ed. 150 + X AP
Printed by Grebel Lithography, Israel, and published by Loushy Editions, Tel Aviv, Israel
2. 0,52
3. 0,52
Fly!
1. Block...
12 screenprints, original drawing, offset prints, with accompanying letterpress booklet, in a cassette
Prints: each 70 × 50 cm
Booklet: 50 × 70 cm
Ed. 25 + V AP
Published by Maximillian Verlag, Sabine Knust, München and Portikus, Frankfurt am Main
The Incident in a Summer Camp Outside of Tarusa from the Album “The Joker Gorokhov”
LEV
GLEBOVICH’S “JOKES”
THE INCIDENT IN A SUMMER CAMP OUTSIDE OF TARUSA
Note: Camp counselor Maria Venjaminovna Balkina was on duty with the children taking an afternoon nap. Suddenly, having looked up, she saw that some of them had wound up high in the branches and that they were sleeping quietly and even whistling in their sleep despite their really uncomfortable position.
The incident was discussed at the camp’s staff meeting.
ALBUM: “THE JOKER GOROKHOV”
1999, 2003
Screenprints, lithograph, and collage, in artist’s frame
135 × 175 cm
Ed. 30 + X AP
Published by Mike Karstens, Münster, Germany
Night Lighting of a City or Region
The Equal Distribution of Energy Cloud Management
A Vehicle for Universal Movement City Palace of the Future Concentration in the Closet Control over the External World
Exterior view of the “Building of Antennae” (building no. 2).
Editors
Emilia Kabakov, Mike Karstens, Orliana Morag and Willem Jan Renders
Design Concept
Ilya Kabakov
Layout
Ilya Kabakov and Polina Bazir, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld
Lithography
Polina Bazir, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld
Production
Jens Bartneck, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld
Photography by Igoris Markovas, Kabakov Studio
Cover Illustration
Die Neujahrsfeier (The New Year’s Celebration), 1995
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher in writing.
