“He became a master immediately.” Cat Leopold and Baby Raccoon Vyacheslav Nazaruk’s “father” died

Soviet and Russian animator Vyacheslav Nazaruk, creator of the paintings Leopold the Cat and Little Raccoon, has died at the age of 82. This was announced on his Facebook page by Sergey Kapkov, the editor-in-chief of the Soyuzmultfilm film studio (the owner of Meta was considered extremist and banned in Russia).

“On January 28, the production designer of the cartoons “Leopold the Cat”, “Mother for the Mammoth”, “Raccoon Baby”, “House of Leopard”, “One Cowboy, Two Cowboys”, “Demon with a Fluffy Tail” and others Vyacheslav Nazaruk died. <...> In recent years, he made paintings dedicated to the events of ancient Russian history / The Farewell will take place on February 1 at 14:00 in the Temple of Tsarevich Dmitry in the First City Hospital ”

He wrote.

Soyuzmultfilm general director Boris Mashkovtsev expressed his condolences on the death of the artist.

“One of the most important classics of domestic animation that made it what it is today is gone. Vyacheslav Nazaruk created many bright images while working on the Screen, the largest studio of the Soviet era, which will forever remain in the hearts of millions of viewers, ”says the words of Mashkovtsev, the press service of the film studio.

He noted that the characters of Nazaruk are touching, sincere and do not leave anyone indifferent, they “bring a lot of bright emotions into our lives.”

“It was completely inimitable”

Artist Yuri Norshtein talked about Nazaruk’s creative path in a conversation with socialbites.ca and shared that he was the one who once directed the future “father” of Mammoth, Little Raccoon and Leopold from cinema to animation.

“Slava and I studied at the same art school. <...> Slava was immediately distinguished by the fact that he was a master. He was a master at drawing. He had a very good hand and remained for life. She was very meticulous in her work. And a future life combination, a combination of creativity, skill and knowledge, gave a very high result. I even have something to do with how Slava got into animation to some extent. We met with her once and she complained that she did something wrong. She worked somewhere at Mosfilm. So I said to him: Slava, it seems to me that you need to go to animation, you will do it very well. It turns out that it really takes root in animation. As a result, a series was made about the cat Leopold, for which the authors later received the USSR State Prize.

Norshtein also said that Nazaruk was engaged in painting until the end of his life, and that ancient Russian history took a particular interest in him. To him, Nazaruk was unique in this regard.

“The historical museum has a huge canvas “Battle of Kulikovo”. I still wonder where and how he did it because this canvas would not fit in any room. That’s what he managed to do because he’s a master. He had a very well-developed sense of composition, which is a sign of good drawing. Along with the Patriotic War of 1812, he designed a large number of books on Russian weapons, ”said Norshtein.

He also said that Nazaruk tried to instill an interest in history not only in adults but also in children, in particular, he created a series of toys.

Norstein admitted that the news of a friend’s death came as a huge shock. “Yes, you are 81 years old, but you still called back when you found out about someone you talked to your whole life. And that’s been the case for over 60 years, and here it is. Everything in life has an end, but the important thing here is to know what you have left for others and in what ways you will be remembered. And there’s only one way but it’s branching. This is the way of creativity,” he said.

The life of a cartoonist and painter

Vyacheslav Nazaruk was born on March 4, 1941 in Moscow in an ordinary metropolitan family. He fell in love with painting very early, at the age of three, and later began sculpting. He graduated from the graphic arts department of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute in 1965. Lenin (MPGU). He graduated from the Central Television creative worker courses at the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Corporation in 1968.

In 1966-1967 he worked as a graphic designer at the Ministry of Commerce of the RSFSR. In 1969-1970, he worked in the main editorial office of the musical TV programs of Central Television. He joined Multtelefilm (Screen creative association) in State Television and Radio Broadcasting in 1970 and worked as a production designer until 1989. On “Screen” more than 40 cartoons and puppet cartoons were produced, including “Baby Raccoon” (1974), “Boxing” (1980), “One cowboy, two cowboys” (1980), “Mom for a” joined. A cartoon cycle about the mammoth” (1981), “The Devil with the Fluffy Tail” (1985) and Leopold the cat (1982-1987).

He later taught painting at Moscow State Pedagogical University until 2000, and received the title of professor in 2001. Since 2004, he started to deal with graphics, easel painting and sculpture.

Nazaruk also designed books as an illustrator, especially “AS Pushkin. Seven Tales (2006) and Lady of the Copper Mountain. Ural Tales”, Pavel Bazhov (1983).

Nazaruk was the author of a number of paintings devoted to Russian history: the trio “Battle of Kulikovo”, “Battle on Ice”, “Baptism”, “Seeing Perun”, “The Story of Igor’s Campaign” and others. The canvases are exhibited in the collections of the History Museum (Moscow), the Museum of the History of Religion (St. Petersburg) and are kept in private collections.

In 1985, he received the USSR State Prize for Leopold the Cat, along with screenwriter Arkady Khait and director Anatoly Reznikov.

Nazaruk also became the author of educational, methodological and scientific works “Using the knowledge of animation when writing a picturesque and historical picture”, “Drawing. Chart. Composition. Plein air”, “One of the methods of working on a historical picture”.