LEONID SOKOV (RUSSIAN 1941-2018 Marilyn Monroe (Ya na gorku shla...) 2008 acrylic and digital print on canvas 120 x 90 cm (47 1/4 x 35 1/2 in.) unframed signed and dated lower right LOT NOTES Translation of the Russian text: "I was going up the hill, and met Yegor. He wanted a kiss - I got a fiver!" LOT NOTES Leonid Sokov’s use of Marilyn Monroe in many of his works is emblematic of his broader artistic project: to collapse ideological binaries and reveal the constructed nature of cultural icons. By placing Marilyn Monroe, the quintessential symbol of American glamour and consumerism alongside texts in Cyrillic or Soviet symbols, Sokov stages a conceptual confrontation that is as absurd as it is illuminating. Sokov exposes how both capitalist and communist cultures manufacture myths. Each society elevates its chosen figures into consumable symbols, stripped of nuance and history. Sokov was a pivotal figure in Russian contemporary art, best known for his contributions to Sots Art - a movement that blended Soviet socialist realism with Western pop art to produce biting, ironic critiques of political and cultural iconography. His work traverses the Cold War divide, interrogating the mythologies of both East and West through a lens that is at once humorous, unsettling, and deeply reflective. Often considered the Soviet counterpart to Western Pop Art, Sots Art did not celebrate consumer culture, but instead appropriated and subverted the visual language of official Soviet propaganda. At once humorous and critical, Sots Art became a crucial form of resistance—working within the boundaries of censorship while undermining the very foundations of ideological control.