Auction of PLAYBOY cartoons, October 2024

 

2018 exhibition Karikatur Museum, Krems

 

Punch

Sokol was part of the wave of new, young cartoonists from the UK and Europe to start working for Punch in the mid-fifties. Along with  Andre Francois, Quentin Blake, Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe their earliest work appeared in the pages of this stalwart British satirical publication.

"Sometimes I think I'd like to move to another city and start all over as a virgin"

Sokol: Master Caricaturist

". . . he started working for Playboy while he was on a scholarship in Chicago in the fifties when he was in his early twenties. Playboy paid him so well, that he was able to travel the world and stay financially secure for his entire life. Except for a break in the seventies and eighties, he worked for the magazine until his death. 'Financially secure' and 'paid well' are two phrases that you rarely hear in conjunction with illustration. Sokol was an identical twin and looked exactly the same as his brother who you can see in the interview. Back to watching the remaining bit now...
according to his daughter and the other interviewees Sokol was a very loud and larger than life personality who drank, smoked and ate too much. The daughter says he had no talent for being a father but lived in his own world, either at his drawing desk or in the pub, drinking with other colleagues from the Austrian media scene. His colleagues say that he was a genius with a sharp eye and wit but very difficult to work with. Sokol suffered from depression because the 'serious' art world rejected his attempts at fine art and that bugged him all his life. Searle had the same problem. It sounds like Sokol was a very intense personality and only concerned with his work, like so many genius artists.
in the bit of footage that shows Sokol at work, he mentions that he sometimes has 60 photos of a person he intends to caricature to study every angle of the personality. Intense research...

Translation by Uli Meyer