Ksenofontovich Mikhail Sokolov (1885-1947)

Creativity M.K.Sokolova unique for its time. Cooper's son, who became an artist against the wishes of relatives, he did not receive a formal education (in 1904 - 07. Studied at SHPU without completing it) and was not included in any of the art association. But the most comprehensive is the image of the Creator in its most romanticized incarnation. This was expressed in all - ranging from the deliberate artistic way of dressing and ending declarative abstraction of topical themes: art Sokolov almost entirely based on timeless stories.
In this painting still life and landscape, in the graph (a drawing he did for the most part) - Cycles "Passion" , Images of circus, comedians, athletes and beautiful women, pictures based on literary works (Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, E.-T.-A. Hoffman) and history ("French Revolution").

After a short period of cubist hobbies (early 1920s). Sokolov comes to this range of subjects, and remains loyal to him to the end. Remain unchanged and graphic virtuosity-reactive manner, romantic and excited speech, the absolute sense of any material.

Seen some serious criticism, the artist nevertheless increasingly feels the lack of demand: the works are rarely exhibited, produced illustrations are not printed in the books (the exception - "Virgin of Orleans" Voltaire, "Acadeinia", 1935).
feed him only teaching: in 1919-21 years . - Art workshops in Tver and Yaroslavl, and in 1923 the 25th - in the studio Proletkult Fine Arts in Moscow in 1925 to 29th. - In the School of Industrial Art in Yaroslavl, in 1936 - 38 years. - At the Institute of Advanced Studies painters and decorators in Moscow.

The dramatic result of fate - the arrest in 1938, a seven-year sentence, Taiga camp in Siberia, where drawings created (on tiny scraps, loose colored chalk or simply a match and ink) are the best works of the artist. Early release of sickness (1943), Sokolov settled in Rybinsk.
In June 1947, he arrived in Moscow to plead for removing a criminal record. He visits the exhibition, making plans for the future. But a serious illness attracts the artist to bed, and soon breaks his life.