He attended the private schools of Eugen Krón in Košice and Gustáv Mallý in Bratislava, as well as the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he studied under Max Švabinský and Tavik Frantisek Simon.
Following a brief period of study with František Kupka in Paris, he accepted an invitation from the Mexican Ministry of Culture and Education to teach his work.
He became a professor of graphic techniques at the Escuela de las Artes del Libro, which he helped found in 1938,[3] and at the University of Mexico City from 1937 to 1941.
Sokol's work was inspired by Vincent van Gogh, Käthe Kollwitz, George Grosz, and strongly by the expressionism of the Die Brücke Group.
His paintings are often dramatic in presentation which led to the belief that he created a Slovak variation of expressionism at a European level.