Russian avant-garde

Kirill Sokolov: “Never an Emigre”

John Milner

Article: 
RUSSIANS ABROAD
Magazine issue: 
#3 2005 (08)

Kirill Sokolov was an unforgettable character, a cultural ambassador in a boiler-suit, indifferent to the impression he produced, obsessed by art; the creative urge to draw, paint and sculpt and the pedagogic urge to organize the propagation of Russian culture in the West and vice versa. This latter mission, which was laid on him by the circumstances of his personal life, he implemented through arranging exhibitions and, from 1975 when he made the acquaintance of the editor and publisher Frank Malina, through his work as co-editor for LEONARDO, a journal which seeks to link art and science and to present artists to its readership through their own statements. Sokolov organized a whole panorama of publications on individual Russian artists beginning with Vladimir.

Kirill Sokolov: “Never an Emigre”

John Milner,
Professor Emeritus of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and leading specialist on Russian 20th century art, wrote a memorial tribute to the artist Kirill Sokolov (1930-2004) for the international journal LEONARDO from which we publish a slightly abbreviated Russian version and parts in English below.

“Vanguardias rusas” at the Museo Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid, Spain, 2006

John E. Bowlt

Article: 
INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA
Magazine issue: 
#2 2006 (11)

The Museo Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid opened a major exhibition of the Russian avant-garde at the beginning of 2006 (February-May), the first of its kind in the Spanish capital. Entitled “Vanguardias rusas” and based on works from the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, Russian regional museums and other public and private collections, the exhibition emphasized the interdisciplinary nature of Russian Modernism. Apart from major paintings, including, incidentally, Goncharova’s “Fishing” (1909) and Larionov’s “Baker” (1909) from the Museo Thyssen itself, the selection encompassed sculpture (including two Cubist pieces by Baranov-Rossine), book design (by Lissitzky and Stepanova), applied arts (including examples from the archive of the Decorative Institute, Leningrad, shown here for the first time), commercial design (such as movie posters by the Stenberg brothers), agit-propaganda (such as street art by Al’tman and posters by Klutsis), porcelain, textile designs and photography (including work by Ignatovich and Rodchenko), to mention just a fraction of this panoramic repertoire.

“Vanguardias rusas” at the Museo Thyssen-Bomemisza, Madrid, Spain, 2006
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