Herluf Bidstrup is a cartoonist from Denmark, whose works, sparkling, lively, show the truth, exposing the vices of society. A significant part of his work is devoted to the fight against fascism.
Biography
Herluf Bidstrup was born on October 10, 1912 in Berlin. He painted from early childhood. Herluf himself recalls that as a child, when crayons or crayons fell into his hands, he began to draw. Sometimes, falling asleep, he would draw "drawings" with his finger in the air. Parents encouraged their son in his endeavor. His father, a decorator and painter, became his first teacher and critic, he also expanded his son's horizons with stories about various countries in which he had a chance to visit. And there was something to tell. Even before the First World War, his father, becoming a painter, left Denmark and lived, earning his craft. He wandered from country to country for twelve years, living even in countries such as Palestine and Egypt, and then, returning to his homeland, traveled through Germany. There Herluf Bidstrup's parents met and fell in love.
First war
Herluf Bidstrup is a witness to two world wars. World War I broke out when he was all two years old. In his memoirs, he writes that he remembers how his family went hungry. For a long time they ate only kohlrabi cabbage. Father was suspected of espionage and was soon arrested, so when he left the prison, Bidstrup decided to leave the country with his family. In Denmark, everything was fine with food, but housing problems started. The young family managed to get an apartment only a few years later. Soon the Spanish epidemic began, which almost left the future artist an orphan. In such difficult conditions for the child, the best consolation was an escape into the world of fantasy.
Laughter is the best ally
Even in early childhood, the Danish artist Herluf Bidstrup noticed that his drawings were not perceived by others as he would like. Over time, reflecting on this, he began to understand which elements make the most comical impression. Later, he deliberately began to use them in his works in order to arouse laughter in the audience. In his school years, this ability of his developed even more, sometimes he even drew on the chalkboard, entertaining teachers and classmates. Herluf Bidstrup painted portraits of teachers and schoolmates, and it was then that he realized how powerful a successful caricature can be.
What is the essence of the caricature?
Such drawings are distinguished by conscious exaggeration, which is often perceived as a distortion, but the cartoonist Herluf Bidstrup never distorted reality. The caricature should give the viewer the impression that the artist made a living object. It is easy to understand that a two-dimensional black-and-white drawing, which, moreover, is significantly reduced, is unlikely to impress the real object, therefore, the lost should be compensated in another way.
Herluf Bidstrup says that a caricature of a political adversary is most successful when he depicts not only the appearance of a particular person, but also his policies. And the main blow is carried out precisely on her, and not on the person’s personality. For example, if the hero of the caricature is a bourgeois or social democratic politician, he can be portrayed as fat, self-righteous and generally unattractive. In this case, the caricature is an illustration of the fact that such a policy leads to hunger and impoverishment of workers. A cartoonist should always remember that his work should reflect the original even more fully than a photograph.
Herluf Bidstrup admits that drawing a caricature is very difficult. He says that rulers and squares will not help in this matter, not even artistic talent, the essence of such an image is not in beauty. Seeing an unsuccessful caricature, many justify the artist’s blunder, saying that it should not be like the original. However, Herluf Bidstrup is adamant: if the caricature didn’t hit the mark, it means that it no longer has the right to be called that way.
Education
Herluf Bidstrup recalls that his future was determined as if by itself, after he spent ten years at school and passed the final exams well. Gradually, the pencils in his hands were replaced by oil paints. In high school, he began to attend an art school, where he studied projection, geometry, the laws of perspective. All this was the preparation necessary for admission to the Academy of Arts. After graduation, Bidstrup studied at the art school for another year.
The Royal Academy of Arts was not so impregnable and accepted the young cartoonist. Bidstrup recalls that it was difficult for him to draw from sitters. He could not maintain interest in objects that stood for hours every day without moving, like a statue. All drawings made in his spare time were images of people in motion. In the pocket of the future cartoonist there was always a notebook in which he made sketches of everything he saw during the day.
During Bidstrup’s studies at the Academy of Arts, the political situation in the world worsened. It was in those years that the Reichstag was set on fire in Berlin, Hitler came to power, and Dimitrov heroically fought against the Nazis at the Leipzig process. These events vividly interested students of the Academy.
Style search
After graduating from the Academy, Herluf Bidstrup again faced with the realities of life. What to do to a young painter? He decided that the most important thing was to find his own style. And time itself dictated the rules: the age of individualism has come, where each artist was obliged to leave a mark in painting, to show his remarkableness. For a short time he was fascinated by the slogans of abstract artists, many of whom studied with him on the same bench. Abstract painting is an opportunity to express your personality without much time. Adherents of this "camp" believed that it makes no sense to try to display reality, if you can do it with a camera in a split second and tens of times more accurately. But an abstract painting is a pure work of art. However, Herluf Bidstrup, who was interested primarily in a living person, attracted the slogans of abstract artists only because by creating realistic images he could not reflect reality and his worries: fascism and the danger of a new war.
First publications
Of course, Bidstrup could begin to paint pictures calling for peace, but the likelihood that they will be able to exhibit at crowded exhibitions was practically zero. Who will exhibit a young, unknown artist? In addition, most Danish residents did not attend exhibitions, because in recent years there have been exhibited mainly the results of experiments by artists.
One evening, Bidstrup was sitting by the radio and listening to Hitler’s speech, emotional, hysterical. Before the era of television was far away, but the young artist so vividly imagined a speaker that he immediately made a few sketches. The result of this work was the first series of drawings. The anti-fascist journal Kulturkampen published cartoons of Hitler. Quotes from this speech were printed beneath them, and the series received the general title, "Bidstrup Drawings. Text by Adolf Hitler." Later this magazine published many other anti-fascist drawings by Herluf.
Heritage
Many more years passed before Herluf Bidstrup received recognition. He left to the descendants more than five thousand drawings, which were published in whole books. In the USSR, they were published in huge print runs, as he was considered a progressive artist, exposing the vices and ulcers of capitalism. He became an honorary member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. The famous cartoonist died in 1988 in the city of Allerode (Denmark). He was 76 years old. Bidstrup’s contribution to the development of the caricature is hard to overestimate. Moreover, he achieved that this type of art can even more than others influence public opinion and shape it.