Sokolov Mikhail Ksenofontovich

From 1898 to 1904 he studied in Yaroslavl city drawing classes with the money of one of the Yaroslavl merchants (Sokolov himself was born into the family of an artisan cooper). In 1904 he entered the Stroganov School. His teachers were S.V. Noakovsky and S.I. Yaguzhinsky. From 1907 he studied independently. In 1904-1907, the works were exhibited at exhibitions in Yaroslavl and Moscow. In 1916-1917 he participated in the exhibition “World of Art”. After the revolution, having left the Baltic Fleet, he made a living by teaching drawing in the city of Sergach, Nizhny Novgorod province (1918-19), in the Yaroslavl State Workshops (VKHUTEMAS) (1919-20). From 1923 he lived in Moscow on the Arbat. Repressed on political charges, he was sentenced in 1938 to 7 years in forced labor camps. In 1943, he was released from the camp as a “walker.” In recent years he has led a circle in the House of Pioneers in Rybinsk. Before his death he was transported to Moscow. Sokolov is a virtuoso of nervously expressive drawing-improvisation and temperamental, but restrained in tone painting. Many of his compositions resemble not so much natural images as internal visions. In his best works he achieves special lyrical expression. From 1966 to 2003, about 20 personal exhibitions of the artist took place, and in 2005-06. Works stored in the collections of the Yaroslavl Art Museum were exhibited in the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery.