Leonid Sokov (Леонид Соков, 1941–2018) was a sculptor of the Sots Art circle who merged Russian folk-carving traditions with a Pop-inflected critique of Soviet iconography. A 1969 graduate of the Stroganov Institute, he emigrated to the United States in 1980, where he worked alongside Alexander Kosolapov and the poet-artist Dmitry Prigov.
Folk form, political edge
Sokov’s sculptures set the heroes and emblems of the Soviet state against the rough vocabulary of village woodwork, deflating official myth through craft. He represented Russia at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and showed at the Gwangju Biennale in 2004.
Collections and retrospectives
His work is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Centre Pompidou, the State Russian Museum and the Hermitage. The Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2012), the Zimmerli Art Museum (2013) and the State Tretyakov Gallery (2016) have all given him solo surveys.
Individual sculpture titles beyond those confirmed in auction records are omitted here rather than guessed.