Kirill Sokolov

Kirill Sokolov born 27th September in Moscow to an aristocratic, language teacher mother and architect father. They lived in a flat in a house designed by his father off the Maroseika.

Evacuated to Saratov.

Admitted to the Special School for Art, Moscow (Graphics Dept), (among his classmates was the future conceptual artist Ilya Kabakov born 1933).

Kirill's father arrested and sent to the camps for five years. (He was allowed to return as builders foreman in a rural area in 1950 but was not rehabilitated until after Stalin's death in 1953, when he was appointed Chief Architect of Kostroma). Kirill witnessed his father's arrest and said that it taught him once and for all to know fear. A family from the NKVD moved into the now communal flat.

Left the Special School for Art.

Enrolled at the Surikov Institute, Moscow, Faculty of Graphic Art.

The painting `Country Church with Rooks' included in this catalogue (page 3) gives a good example of his working style at this period. But at the same time he was studying and exploring Picasso's work, Abstract Expressionism and 20th Century Russian Avant-garde.

Graduated from the Surikov Institute. At the International Festival Exhibition in Moscow, Kirill exhibited a series of linocuts. Illustrating Elsa Triolets L'Etrange and was given a laureate prize.

Met Avril Pyman a British research student who was on a British Council Scholarship to study Alexander Blok.

Married Dr. Avril Pyman 'Dicky'.

Exhibited at the Literature Museum, Moscow a series of lino cuts of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Illustrated some 50 books, mainly by contemporary authors, including lurii Trifonov, Bulat Okudzhave, and Fazil Iskander. Painted constantly but did not show his work and sold only to friends.

Left Russia to live in England.

Became Co-editor of the International Art Journal 'Leonardo'. Exhibited at the Gulbenkian Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne paintings and sculpture.

Exhibited at the Bondgate Gallery, Alnwick, Northumberland oil paintings and prints. - Printed Books at Durham University Library, and also at Newcastle University. - Oil paintings and prints at Collingwood College, Durham University. - Paintings and prints at the Art Centre, St. Heliers, Jersey.

Designed catalogue Russian Graphic Art 18th - 20th Centuries contributing images and text with his wife Dr Avril Pyman the exhibition originated at the Hatton Gallery Newcastle University under the aegis of Dr John Milner and subsequently went on tour in 1979.

Exhibited at the Senate House, London University oil paintings, silk-screen prints and sculptures.

Exhibits portraits at Dunelm House, Durham University. Exhibited paintings at the Hellmann Gallery, Western Germany. A fire at his house in Berwick upon-Tweed devastates almost all of his life's work and destroys over four hundred pictures. Kirill becomes a member of the Society of Fine Art Graphic Artists. Begins 'House without a Master' series.

Produces 'The life of Christ', Miracles series of silk screen prints.

Stayed in Northern Italy and produces a series of paintings of Florence and Venice.

Exhibited with the Northern Print group at Washington Arts Centre, Tyne and Wear. Solo Exhibition of Prints and Collages at the Bishopsgate Foundation, `London 1984'. Contributes to a group exhibition at the Edinburgh Festival. Work included in the publication to commemorate 10 years of Northern Printmakers 'Ten Years On'.

Prints and collages of Greece and Mount Athos exhibited at Grey's Gallery, Gosforth Newcastle upon-Tyne.

Included in a group exhibition at Edinburgh College of Art as part of the Edinburgh Festival. Exhibition of prints and watercolours of Greece and Mount Athos at the Bishopsgate Foundation, London.

Exhibition of prints of Goethe's Faust at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London.

Group exhibition of the members of the Charlotte Press, Newcastle upon-Tyne. Goethe's Faust series exhibited at Knittlingen, Western Germany.

Exhibition of graphic works at the Academy of Arts, Riga, Latvia.

Exhibition at the House of the Artist, Krymskaya Naberezhnaya, Moscow. 'Ten Year Work' graphic art. Paintings, sculpture and graphic art exhibition at the Vicarage Gallery, North Shields. Graphic Art at the State Art Gallery, Perm, Russia.

Exhibition of work for Theatre, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon-Tyne. Group show at Hunt and Jenkins Gallery, London.

'Pictures for an Exhibition' the Clayton Gallery at the Playhouse, Newcastle upon-Tyne. Group exhibition 'Back to the USSR' Laing Gallery, Newcastle upon-Tyne.

'Retrospective Exhibition' - paintings and sculpture at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon-Tyne. Group exhibition `Artists in a Northern Landscape' Gymnasium Gallery, Berwick on Tweed.

Retrospective at the House of the Artist, Moscow - paintings, sculpture, silkscreen prints.

Exhibition at the State Art Gallery, Perm, Russia - paintings and graphic art.

Exhibition at Manchester Cathedral, new prints of the Faust series and sculpture.

Exhibition of reliefs, collage and sculpture at Nashe Nasledie, Moscow. Group exhibition of collages in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow.

Exhibition at the Blok Museum St. Petersburg. Works in various mediums inspired by Blok's life and poetry 'Alexander Blok, in memoriam'. Exhibition at the State Art Gallery, Perm, Russia - paintings, sculpture, reliefs gifted to the gallery. Kirill Sokolov died in Wansbeck Hospital, Ashington on the 22nd May.

Group exhibition to celebrate Victory Day at the Russian Embassy (April-May), London. Group exhibition of bronze sculptures at the Grey College, Durham University in the Senior Common Room.

Gift to Durham Cathedral a crucifix in iron, bronze and granite entitled `Lama Sabachthani?' for public and permanent display. Major Retrospective at Grey College, Durham University in October. First posthumous retrospective catalogue published by Henry Dyson Fine Art, London.

Major Retrospective at Gallery 47, London; September.

Major Retrospective at the International Gallery, Laeso, Denmark during the months of July and August.