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During the 1960’s and 1970’s, Kabakov’s official work was as an illustrator for a large number of children’s books and newspapers but, at the same time, he also worked unofficially, making paintings and drawings in many different styles including, at the beginning, a form of abstract expressionism.
In the Soviet Union at this time, no experimentation of any kind was permitted. If the artists were to exhibit and make a living from their work, they were required to paint or sculpt in the officially approved style of Socialist Realism. Kabakov, along with a number of friends and colleagues, simply refused to do this and developed an approach to making art which has been described as SOTSART—a parody of the official style.
Kabakov used parody to make a serious point. In the style of children’s book illustrations, he created a large number of albums of collections of drawings, which reflected on the ideas of personal freedom as well as on the everyday problems of existence under the Soviet system. The figures in his drawings started to take on the dimension of alter egos and began to have full biographies.