Gennady Kalinovsky (1929-2006) was one of the most famous and prolific Soviet illustrators. The brilliant illustrator and graphic artist created a unique, bright world of children’s book illustrations.
He was born in Stavropol, then moved with his family to Makhachkala, where he spent his childhood. Already then, in 1943, he received his first prize in the drawing competition of the newspaper “Pionerskaya Pravda” for his work “The Death of the Nibelungs”. Following a recommendation, he moved to Moscow, where he graduated from art school and entered the Surikov Art Institute, Department of Book Graphics.
After training, he began working as an illustrator in periodicals – the magazines “Yunost”, “Ogonyok”, “Family and Home”. At the same time, he illustrated books (collection “Robin Hood”, “The Lonely White Sail” by V. Kataev, “The Iron Flood” by A. Serafimovich).
In 1974, he created popular and subsequently republished illustrations for Carroll’s fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland” retold by Boris Zakhoder. For his illustrations for “Alice Through the Looking Glass”, Kalinovsky received the Ivan Fedorov diploma in 1980 and 1982.
Among the books illustrated by Kalinovsky are “Gulliver’s Travels” by J. Swift, “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov, “Strawberries under the Snow” (1968), “Mary Poppins” by Pamela Travers (1972), “The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh” by Milne (1965, together with Boris Diodorov), works by Korney Chukovsky, “Mr. Boo” by Hannu Mäkelä (1976), “Uncle Remus Stories” by Joel Harris (1976), “Five Kidnapped Monks” by Yuri Koval (1977), “Loskutik and the Cloud”, “Astrel and the Guardian of the Forest”, “Adventures on Captains’ Island”, “Glazastik and the Invisible Key” by Sofia Prokofieva, and many others.
