Archetypal Figures

The discovery of archaic form in sculpture led to the exploration of the mythical foundations of culture in history and the mind of man. Sokolov borrowed the term Achetypal from Jung, whom he read assiduously. In his painting, highly formalised figures act out myth and parable against an elemental background. “There is”, he once said “a staircase from realism through the archetype to abstraction. At the moment it is the last two steps which interest me most” (Interview “Monmartre by the Butyrka, Moscow, 2002”).