Russia. Pavel Sokolov-Skalia – Russian and Soviet painter. Illustration to novel of D. Furmanov “Chapayev” (1941). Pictorial Postcard

Pavel Sokolov-Skalia – Russian and Soviet painter.

Illustration to novel of D. Furmanov “Chapayev” (1941).

Pictorial Postcard

Pavel Petrovich Sokolov moved to Moscow in 1914 to apprentice in the studio of Il’ia Mashkov. He studied at VKhUTEMAS for a year, and then joined the avant-garde art group Being. When the group dissolved in 1926, he joined AKhRR, where he remained until the war. He achieved some critical success for painting nationalist subjects, worked as a book illustrator and theater set designer, and was active as an instructor. During the war, Sokolov-Skalia served as the artistic director of the TASS studio. Among the most prolific artists working for TASS, he designed approximately 200 posters for the studio between June 1941 and November 1946. Sokolov-Skalia was twice awarded the Stalin Prize (1942 and 1949). He was also elected a full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR in 1949, and in 1956 he was given the honorific title People’s Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.