Koloman Sokol — The Birth

Sokol was born on December 12, 1902 in Liptovský Mikuláš. In 1920 he studied at Eugen Krón´s private school in Košice. Four years later he enrolled in the private art school led by Gustv Mallé in Grösslingová Str. in Bratislava. In 1925 he continued in his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague at Max Švabinský studio, later at Josef Laukota´s and T. F. Šimon´s studios where he showed an individual graphic style. In 1932 he left for France for a one year study where he met his former classmate, an American of Czech origin, Lýdia Kratinová, to whom he got married in Paris.

After returning from Paris the married couple settled in Prague where Koloman Sokol worked on newspaper illustrations and free illustrations as well. In 1934 he took part in various exhibitions at home and abroad. In 1936 The Mexican – Czechoslovak Society organized an exhibition at Palacio de Bella Artes in Mexico and he took part in it. His work was admired by the Mexican artist Francisco Diaz de León who asked Koloman Sokol to teach woodcutting for one year in Mexico. In 1937 he was titled professor of graphics at Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas. In 1940 he became an instructor of litography and etching at the American Summer School. One year later, in 1941 he was nominated by the Mexican president the professor of the specialistic teaching and became a member of the jury for Salón del Grabado. Sokol and his family left in the same year Mexico for the USA. In 1942 he was planning to establish a private graphic school in Long Island City, but his plans were interrupted by the outbreak of the WWII. After the war was over in 1945 he began establishing contacts with Czechoslovakia through the Czech Embassy in the USA.

In October 1946 Koloman Sokol returened to his home country invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After a short term stay at Prague University he started to teach at the Department of the Visual Arts at the Slovak Technical University and at the Pedagogical Faculty in Bratislava. He was awarded the title national artist for his visual art achievment and became a member of The Slovak Academy of Arts and Science. He exhibited at the gallery Roux-Hentschel in 1948 in Paris and this ended the last period of his stay in the home country. After leaving Paris Sokol and his family moved to the USA where they lived from 1949 in Bryn Mawr near Philadelphia.

Koloman Sokol, one of the Slovak most prominent representatives of the visual art culture and the founder of the modern graphic art died at the age of 101 in Tuscon, Arizona, on January 12, 2003. According his last will, the ashes of Koloman Sokol are placed in the three places in the world he was mostly adhered to.