How a former Muscovite became one of the best cartoonists in the USA - ForumDaily
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As a former Muscovite became one of the best cartoonists in the USA

Roman Genn. Photo by Julia Bunyak

Roman Genn. Photo by Julia Bunyak

From his "sharp pencil" got to Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Former Muscovite Roman Genn - one of the most famous political cartoonists in the United States. His work has been published for several decades in leading American publications: National Review, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post. The Forum talked to him about the anti-Soviet past, about the reaction of politicians to his caricatures and about censorship in the American media.

Anti-soviet element

Roman Genn makes an appointment with us at 12: 00. On the eve, the next issue of the National Review magazine was handed over to print, where he works as the main artist, and there were a lot of cases. After a few sips of coffee, 43-year-old Roman is ready to remember his past and share the present.

“The first time I managed to sell my caricature to a friend in kindergarten. I got 10 kopecks for it, which I lost immediately, ”laughs Genn.

Now his work is bought by American politicians and Hollywood stars for the "evergreen" currency, and the name is firmly inscribed in the history of American political caricature.

Caricature of a Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood

Caricature of a Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood

Roman was born and raised in Moscow. He studied at the art school and the Moscow State Academic Art School. Drew and hooligans. He was registered with the police. In a word, in Soviet reality he felt like a foreign body.

“We didn’t know anything at the time. There were no books telling the truth; the radio was broadcasting about record milk yields and the fact that “not every miner in Great Britain will have a turkey for the Christmas table.” At the age of eleven, while reading the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, I thought: why don’t they write about many famous people - about the same Marshals Tukhachevsky and Blucher? They appeared only in the last volume, published after Stalin's death. Something didn't work. One day a family friend told me in confidence that they had all been shot.

And suddenly, at one point, you realize that behind all the stories there is some huge lie that the state is constantly lying to you, ”explains the sources of its anti-Soviet movement.

Publish something that runs counter to the general line of the party in the mid-eighties was unreal. To make a copy of a document or image, it was necessary to present permission from the executive department of censorship.

“Now it’s incomprehensible to the mind how it was a controlled state. Naturally, many people still have good memories of youth, and all this incredible stupidity of the Soviet government in which we lived seemed to be erased from memory, which partly explains today's renaissance of this idiocy, ”Roman sighs.

At a time when the objects of satire could be the maximum of a house manager, a small official or a negligent director, Genn fell in love with drawing caricatures of the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Yegor Ligachev. “I bought a book of his speeches and simply compared his every thesis with reality and finished writing:“ You can’t get to lose us! ”,“ You can’t beat us! ” It was very easy to work, ”Roman says ironically.

From the second year of MAHA, he began selling his work on Arbat. For caricatures of Soviet leaders, he was regularly taken to the police. “The policemen brought some polubomzh, who wrote a statement that my caricatures insult his proletarian feelings. Now, by the way, this is becoming fashionable again in Russia, ”either wonders, or Genn resents.

In his early biography, quite accidentally, the fact of a one-time collaboration with the main mouthpiece of Soviet propaganda, the newspaper Pravda, was heaped. A friend who worked there asked me to illustrate an article on a student topic. With this publication, Roman later covered up more than once during his drive to the police: “It was a kind of indulgence. When I was taken for an anti-Soviet caricature, I always showed them this “Truth” and said that I was allowed to draw what I was painting. ” Some time it worked. When Roman was tired of getting into the police station, he decided it was time to leave.

“I just didn’t want to live among these people, although at that time I didn’t really believe, but I thought that some new, better life would come there — it was young and there wasn’t enough life experience. With age, you realize that there was a completely indestructible archaic cruel stupidity around. She is invincible. It may be in a frozen state for some time, but then it will still thaw out and crawl out of the garbage chute - angry and rested, ”cuts off Roman.

The American Dream in the City of Angels

On a hot June day, 1991, 19-year-old Roman Genn arrived in Los Angeles. “Everything around was cardboard and decorative, unreal, and the sun was shining very brightly,” Roman describes his first impressions of the city of angels. “Now I’m already used to it, so I’m not going to get me out of here."

He came to the States with almost nothing. I traveled as a refugee on an Israeli visa. They were not allowed to take anything with them. “They didn’t take what they did away with, they forced me to sell it, but I think it was possible to export one hundred dollars per person. The only thing allowed to take - books. This is a sign of a “spiritual” state that got rid of reading people, ”Roman thinks.

Caricature of Roman Genn

Caricature of Roman Genn

Taking his cartoons, he went on to the editorial offices of local publications. Suddenly for him the Los Angeles Times published his drawing - in August 1991 there was a coup, and the Soviet theme was in demand in the Western press. Then there were eight months of constant refusals, although Roman weekly, like a job, came to the Los Angeles Times and showed his new caricatures. Perseverance paid off a lot - in March 1992, he began a collaboration with the Los Angeles Times, which lasted about 15 years.

Information about the talented cartoonist quickly spread among the nationwide publications. Roman was invited to cooperate with New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News, International Herald Tribune, Newsday, Newsweek, Harper / Collins, Penguin Group, Saatchi & Saatchi, TV Guide, Barron's, American Lawyer.

Since 1993, Roman Genn has been working for National Review. Every second cover of the magazine - its authorship.

“Roman does an excellent job,” the famous political cartoonist spoke about the drawings of Genn. Pat olifent. Roman himself, in his characteristic ironic manner, describes his own scale of success differently:

"The criterion for recognizing a cartoonist is that he was put in jail."

In the 70-80 years, tough satire on the brink of a foul was cultivated in the United States, but the excessive political correctness that followed caused damage to the art of caricature. The drawings became polite, sugary and toothless. “Complacency is so ingrained that the editors want nothing sharp. A tough satire dies slowly, and in its place comes the “grinning pictures”, as Boris Efimov called them (Soviet political cartoonist - Auth.)“- Roman regrets.

He says that the American censorship does not miss anything that can be interpreted as racist or antifeminist: “It took me many years to understand what is possible and what is impossible here. I learned this through trial and error, ”the cartoonist admits.

Self-portrait by Roman Genn

Self-portrait by Roman Genn

“For the Wall Street Journal, I somehow did a caricature of Martha Stewart (American businesswoman and TV host - Aut). I had to redo it a million times - the female part of the editorial staff believed that the boxing gloves in which I portrayed her demean the female dignity of Stewart. Then they told me that when a caricature is painted on her, she usually calls the editor and yells, ”recalls Roman Genn.

Genn painted caricatures of all modern American presidents, many politicians, Hollywood stars and historical personalities. Some of his work caused serious scandals at the highest level.

Caricature of Bill Clinton

Caricature of Bill Clinton

Traditionally sent to the White House library a set of National Review magazines, on the cover of which Barack Obama was depicted as a proctologist, the offended presidential administration returned the editorial board. “It’s a pity they didn’t write a written refusal, it would be absolutely ridiculous. Clinton was quite normal about this. His speech writer told me that he was just laughing at the cartoons. Clinton was a man of humor, and Obama, in my opinion, is not friendly with humor, ”says Roman.

The scandalous cover of National Review with a caricature of Barack Obama by Roman Genn

The scandalous cover of National Review with a caricature of Barack Obama by Roman Genn

However, in the mid-nineties, Roman Genn was even seriously angered the Clinton family, when, after a scandal with the use of Chinese money in the second presidential company of Bill Clinton, he depicted a presidential couple in Chinese clothes. In the Democratic Party, this caused a wave of discontent.

Caricature of Bill and Hillary Clinton

Scandalous caricature of Bill and Hillary Clinton

Although most politicians are caricatures with humor and replenish their personal collections. So, Gray Davis, the California Governor 37, bought all the cartoons from Roman Genn. And the wife of his successor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, on the contrary, called the editorial office and the scandal due to the fact that Roman made her look like a skeleton.

“Senators and congressmen usually buy original caricatures for party funds. No one has ever paid with his own money, a check is always from such a politician from the “re-election committee”, ”laughs Genn. The cost of his work starts from five hundred dollars and can reach several thousand.

Russian deja vu

Roman Genn regularly visits Moscow. In 2012, he presented a joint exhibition of caricatures and paintings with the artist Innocent Baranov there. However, recent visits have made a depressing impression on him: “Russia is poisoned by the poison of megalomania with an inferiority complex, which are usually symptoms of the same disease.

What is happening there gives me the full feeling that I am in Nazi Germany 38 of the year.

Journalists from the TV vtyuhivayu from the TV to the illiterate population of fantastic nonsense. However, the people are not an innocent victim, these people with the mentality of access gopniks want to be deceived. They like to attack someone, to take away, humiliate. At the same time, there is some kind of vulgar and sugary sentimentality towards one’s beloved, traditionally characteristic of criminals. Then, of course, if things go badly, “they will turn on the sucker” - they say, we, the gullible, were again swindled by the Kremlin villains - agents of the world behind the scenes, we knew nothing. But really good people, who are in Russia a lot, are really sorry. ”

Caricature of Vladimir Putin

Caricature of Vladimir Putin

Roman’s creative portfolio contains quite a few caricatures of President Vladimir Putin, although he admits that the Russian theme doesn’t often appear in their publications: “A former colleague asked why we have few caricatures of Putin. I explain to him that in the United States they are interested in Russia in much the same way as in Russia they are interested in the Republic of Burundi. He is convinced that we do not publish caricatures of Putin, so as not to annoy him.

It does not even occur to him that Putin in America is curious only to his former compatriots, for the rest he is the Elusive Joe. ”

Roman Genn confesses: he always liked to paint colorful villains, rather than ordinary politicians.

Caricature of Roman Genn on the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Caricature of Roman Genn on the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Yasir Arafat, Mahmut Ahmadinejad, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi - were his favorite characters. The novel thinks for a moment about who else to enroll in this list, and then almost philosophically adds: “I think the 21st century will not disappoint us either.”

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