Kirill Sokolov was born in Moscow, USSR (now Russia), in 1930, studying art at the Moscow Art School and the Graphic Art Department of the Surikov State Art Institute in Moscow and establishing a career as a painter and book illustrator. In 1974 Sokolov immigrated to England with his second wife, British cultural and literary historian Avril Pyman, settling in north Northumberland. During his time in Britain Sokolov continued working prolifically as a painter and printmaker and also served as foreign editor of American academic journal 'Leonardo', producing and commissioning a number of pioneering articles on the history and theory of Russian art.
Graphic artist, painter and writer, Kirill Sokolov was born on 27 September 1930 in Moscow, to a Russian architect father and a mother of mixed Russian, German and Dutch descent. Sokolov enrolled at the Moscow Art School in 1942 and at the Graphic Art Department of the Surikov State Art Institute in 1950, specialising in engraving. Alongside his formal training, Sokolov privately studied the works of Picasso and the Russian avant-garde artists, which, following the period of Nikita Khrushchev's Thaw (1953–64), were being slowly reintroduced into the public discourse. Sokolov graduated in 1957; the same year the International Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow, where Sokolov exhibited his graduate diploma, a series of linocuts illustrating the work of Russian-French writer Elsa Triolet. In 1960, while still in his first marriage, Sokolov met Avril Pyman, a British student on a British Council scholarship to Russia researching the life and work of Alexander Blok. Having divorced his first wife in 1963, Sokolov married Pyman later that year. It was the first foreign marriage in the Soviet Union since the repeal of Stalin's marriage laws and, as such, it had to be sanctioned by Khrushchev himself. During that period Sokolov illustrated around 50 books, including by Mikhail Bulgakov, Fazil Iskander, Bulat Okudzhava and Yury Trifonov. His first solo exhibition was held at the State Literature Museum in Moscow in 1964, where he showed a series of linocuts for William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Sokolov also painted in private, producing a large number of cubist and primitive-style landscapes, portraits and still-lives.
In 1974 Sokolov immigrated to England, settling in north Northumberland, where Pyman's family was from, on the border between England and Scotland. From 1975 onwards, Sokolov produced paintings and sculpture, although the transition to a life in a new country was not easy for him and led to a period of prolonged depression. A new wave of inspiration came to him, as his wife recalls, when '[...] he began picking up scraps of sea-moulded stone or wood (which reminded him of [Henry] Moore's sculptures) and of old bones and skeletons with which the North Northumbrian fields are liberally scattered, piecing them together and making figures [...]'( as cited in Avril Sokolov, p. 2). In 1976, Sokolov met the British art historian John Milner; through him, he became acquainted with Frank Malina, the publisher and editor of an American academic journal, Leonardo. Sokolov was subsequently appointed foreign editor of the journal, producing and commissioning a number of pioneering articles on the history and theory of Russian art. He also collaborated with Milner on several exhibition projects dedicated to Russian art, including a 1979 show on Russian graphic art held at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle. In 1979 Sokolov exhibited at the Senate House Library, University of London. As Milner recalls, Sokolov's house and studio in Berwick-upon-Tweed were a curious sight: every interior surface was painted, including the walls, floors, doors, chairs and tables. After an extensive fire there in 1980, in which more than 400 of his works were lost, Sokolov similarly decorated his house in Durham, 'where there remains a profusion of sculpture, paintings, drawings, prints, folk art and Russian prints' (obituary, Leonardo). In the 1980s Sokolov developed an innovative method of printmaking, which he called silkscreen collage. He produced folios in this highly expressive technique on the themes of Venice, London in 1984 (a tribute to George Orwell), and Greece (where he regularly travelled with his wife). Sokolov carried out his printmaking experiments at Charlotte Press (later Northern Print) in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, connecting with local artists and subsequently exhibiting with them on several occasions. In 1980, he became a member of the Association of Graphic Artists of Great Britain.
Sokolov held an exhibition at the Academy of Arts in Riga, Latvia in 1990 and at the House of the Artist in Moscow in 1992 (touring to the State Museum in Perm). Subsequent exhibitions were held at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London (1988); Manchester Cathedral (1999) and Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle (1993 and 1995). Sokolov continued to work until his death from lung cancer. Kiril Sokolov died at Wansbeck Hospital, Ashington, Northumberland, England in 2004. At his request, his ashes were buried next to his mother and grandmother at Peredelkino near Moscow. Sokolov's works are represented in UK public collections including Durham University, and are held by the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. In 2006, a crucifix by Sokolov in iron, bronze and granite entitled Lama Sabachthani was posthumously gifted to Durham Cathedral, where it is on permanent display. The same year a retrospective of Sokolov's work was held at Grey College, Durham University, and a catalogue of Sokolov's oeuvre was published by Henry Dyson Fine Art, London. Several subsequent exhibitions of Sokolov's work have been held in recent years, including at Gallery 47, London (2007), the International Gallery, Laeso, Denmark (2008) and museums in Russia (2007 and 2014).
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Kirill Sokolov]
Publications related to [Kirill Sokolov] in the Ben Uri Library