Viktor Nikolaevich Denisov (; March 8, 1893 – August 3, 1946), best known by the shortened pseudonym Viktor Deni, was a Russian and Soviet

satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Early satirical authors *Aes ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

and

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

artist. Deni was one of the major

agitprop Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...

poster artists of the Bolshevist period (1917–1921). His art is held in the collections of the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

Biography

Born in Moscow in 1893, Denisov later shortened his surname to Deni. Deni moved to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in 1913 where he established himself as a successful

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Abril Lamarque (1904–1999) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfre ...

, his caricatures appearing in a number of illustrated satirical journals. After the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

Deni worked for the Litizdat (the state publishing house), an agency founded in June 1919 to coordinate the various publishing centres on behalf of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

s. He produced nearly 50 political posters during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, including some of his most well known satirical work. He became one of the major agitprop poster artists of the Bolshevist period (1917–1921). Deni subsequently focused on producing newspaper cartoons that addressed foreign policy issues. Deni taught poster artist

Nina Vatolina Nina Nikolaevicha Vatolina (1915–2002) was a Soviet Russian poster artist. Active from the late 1930s into the 1960s, she has been called "formidably prolific" and credited with "some of the best" Soviet poster design in the era. Her work is ...

from 1935 until 1939; Vatolina married his son, Nikolai, in 1934. During the

German–Soviet War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and A ...

(

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

), he returned to the medium of the political poster together with several other prominent poster artists of the Civil War such as Mikhail Cheremnykh and

Dmitry Moor D. Moor () was the professional name of Dmitry Stakhievich Orlov (; 3 November 1883 in Novocherkassk – 24 October 1946 in Moscow), a Russian artist noted for his propaganda posters. The pseudonym "Moor" was taken from the name of the protagonis ...

References

External links

Biography at Lambiek Comiclopedia.
1893 births 1946 deaths Russian caricaturists Russian magazine cartoonists Russian editorial cartoonists Russian political artists Writers from Moscow Russian satirists Propaganda in the Soviet Union Russian poster artists People of the Russian Civil War Soviet poster artists 20th-century Russian male artists {{Russia-artist-stub

Biography

See also

References

Further reading

External links