Untitled 

This is an untitled drawing made in the Soviet Union during the Second World War by the artistic collective known as Kukryniksy. During the war, the group produced hard-hitting propaganda posters, drawings, and caricatures for newspapers and magazines. This image depicts a wounded Nazi soldier on crutches next to a coffin, out of which peers a frightened man. The image draws on the aesthetics of caricature to undermine and ridicule the Nazi regime. This aesthetic was the group's primary mode of social commentary. It’s likely that the image was produced for a popular magazine such as Krokodil, or perhaps for a propaganda poster to be displayed in public. The art historian might investigate the role of caricature in wartime Soviet culture, exploring the media and institutions through which the group expressed their ideas, and the particular impact of their work on a contemporary audience.