Yuri Alexandrovich Merkulov (Russian: Юрий
Ð Ð»ÐµÐºÑ Ð°Ð½Ð´Ñ€Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Меркулов; 28 April [O.S. 15 April]
1901 â€" 13 February 1979) was a Soviet artist, animation and film
director, conservator-restorer, inventor, film theorist and actor. He
is known as one of the founders of the Soviet school of traditional
and stop motion animation.Yuri Merkulov was born in the Rasskazovo
village (modern-day town of Rasskazovo, Tambov Oblast of Russia) into
a wealthy Russian family. He was one of the seven children of
Alexander Nikolaevich Merkulov (1869â€"1924), a prominent surgeon and
a member of the Russian Society of Doctors who inspected, organized
and reorganized medical clinics all over the country. During World War
I he headed one of the Moscow military hospitals, and after the
October Revolution he founded the Moscow Institute of Traumatology,
working closely with Nikolai Semashko. Yuri's mother Maria Karlovna
Merkulova (1870â€"1944) was a professional piano player who dedicated
herself to raising children.Yuri became interested in art early in his
life and entered Fyodor Rerberg's Moscow School of Painting. During
the war he and his sisters worked at their father's hospital, mending
wounded soldiers. He then served in the Soviet Navy and on his return
joined Vkhutemas where he studied under Ilya Mashkov until 1923. He
became closely associated with the Soviet Avant-Garde art movement,
taking part in various progressive coalitions, including Vladimir
Mayakovsky's collective of modern artists where he drew ROSTA posters
and designed scenery for the Mystery-Bouffe play, among other things.
Together with Daniil Cherkes he also decorated agit-trains; it was
during that time they came up with the idea of "animated posters", the
earliest kind of Soviet animation based on the art by Dmitry Moor,
Viktor Deni and Mikhail Cheremnykh.In 1923 Merkulov along with Nikolai
Khodataev and Zenon Komissarenko produced sketches for the Aelita
science fiction movie. As Yakov Protazanov rejected the idea of mixing
live action with animation, the three founded their own experimental
workshop under the State School of Cinematography, the first Soviet
animation studio. By 1924 they finished Interplanetary Revoluion â€" a
cutout animation parody on Aelita and the current political situation
that became very popular. In a year they were hired by the Soviet
government to produce China in Flames, another political satire
critical of European interference in Chinese economy. Vladimir Suteev,
Ivan Ivanov-Vano and the Brumberg sisters joined the team which led to
a variety of styles. With 1000 meters of film and 14 frames per second
it ran over 50 minutes at the time, which made it the first Soviet
animated feature film and one of the first in the world. After that
Merkulov, Khodataev and Komissarenko went their own ways.
Ð Ð»ÐµÐºÑ Ð°Ð½Ð´Ñ€Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Меркулов; 28 April [O.S. 15 April]
1901 â€" 13 February 1979) was a Soviet artist, animation and film
director, conservator-restorer, inventor, film theorist and actor. He
is known as one of the founders of the Soviet school of traditional
and stop motion animation.Yuri Merkulov was born in the Rasskazovo
village (modern-day town of Rasskazovo, Tambov Oblast of Russia) into
a wealthy Russian family. He was one of the seven children of
Alexander Nikolaevich Merkulov (1869â€"1924), a prominent surgeon and
a member of the Russian Society of Doctors who inspected, organized
and reorganized medical clinics all over the country. During World War
I he headed one of the Moscow military hospitals, and after the
October Revolution he founded the Moscow Institute of Traumatology,
working closely with Nikolai Semashko. Yuri's mother Maria Karlovna
Merkulova (1870â€"1944) was a professional piano player who dedicated
herself to raising children.Yuri became interested in art early in his
life and entered Fyodor Rerberg's Moscow School of Painting. During
the war he and his sisters worked at their father's hospital, mending
wounded soldiers. He then served in the Soviet Navy and on his return
joined Vkhutemas where he studied under Ilya Mashkov until 1923. He
became closely associated with the Soviet Avant-Garde art movement,
taking part in various progressive coalitions, including Vladimir
Mayakovsky's collective of modern artists where he drew ROSTA posters
and designed scenery for the Mystery-Bouffe play, among other things.
Together with Daniil Cherkes he also decorated agit-trains; it was
during that time they came up with the idea of "animated posters", the
earliest kind of Soviet animation based on the art by Dmitry Moor,
Viktor Deni and Mikhail Cheremnykh.In 1923 Merkulov along with Nikolai
Khodataev and Zenon Komissarenko produced sketches for the Aelita
science fiction movie. As Yakov Protazanov rejected the idea of mixing
live action with animation, the three founded their own experimental
workshop under the State School of Cinematography, the first Soviet
animation studio. By 1924 they finished Interplanetary Revoluion â€" a
cutout animation parody on Aelita and the current political situation
that became very popular. In a year they were hired by the Soviet
government to produce China in Flames, another political satire
critical of European interference in Chinese economy. Vladimir Suteev,
Ivan Ivanov-Vano and the Brumberg sisters joined the team which led to
a variety of styles. With 1000 meters of film and 14 frames per second
it ran over 50 minutes at the time, which made it the first Soviet
animated feature film and one of the first in the world. After that
Merkulov, Khodataev and Komissarenko went their own ways.
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