Sonja Sekula
Sonja Sekula (8 April 1918 – 25 April 1963) (also known as Sonia Sekula) was an American artist linked with the abstract expressionist movement, notable for her activity as an "out" lesbian in the New York art world during the 1940s and early 1950s.[1]
Sonia Sekula
April 8, 1918
April 25, 1963 (aged 45)
Swiss, American
She met the surrealists in exile in New York during 1942.[2] On 25 April 1963, she hanged herself in her studio in Zurich after many years of mental health issues.[3] She is buried in St. Moritz as she had requested in a letter to her mother.[2]
Early life and education[edit]
Sonja Sekula was born in Lucerne on 8 April 1918 to a Swiss mother, Berta Huguenin (1896–1980), and a Hungarian father, Béla Sekula (1881–1966), a philatelist.
Sekula and her family relocated to New York from Lucerne, Switzerland when she was a child. She lived in New York, New Mexico, Mexico, and in different cities in Europe.[4]
Sekula moved to New York in 1936, when her father moved his philatelic business there.[5] In a letter sent to her mother, Sonja described New York as "very gray. All the steel constructions are waking up and their steel shines towards new work."[5]
She attended school at Sarah Lawrence College but left after two years, entering the Art Students League where she studied under Dadaist George Grosz and Modernist Morris Kantor.[5]
Career[edit]
In New York Sekula befriended American poet Carl Sandburg and met the surrealists in exile during 1942. It was during this time that she became part of an international circle of artists, writers, choreographers, and composers in New York in the 1940s, when she was in her early twenties.
Peggy Guggenheim included Sekula in the 1943 exhibition "31 Women" at her Art of This Century gallery, and gave Sekula her first solo exhibition in 1946.[5] Betty Parsons Gallery exhibited Sekula's work in 1948.[2] In 1949, she had a third one-man show and was also included in a Betty Parson's group show with Theodoros Stamos, Jackson Pollock, and Barnett Newman.[5]
Despite people holding good opinions of her work, the same could not be said about the artist. Sonja was seen as unfortunate due to not only her mental state, but also her open sexuality. Thus her work is often overlooked.[6]
Sekula returned to Switzerland with her family in 1955 and remained there for the rest of her life, although she did return to New York in 1957.[5] In 1955 Sekula had a solo exhibition at Galerie Palette, Zurich.[2]
Her work is in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art,[7] the Museum of Modern Art,[8] the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[9] and the Walker Art Center.[10] In 2016 her biography was included in the exhibition catalogue Women of Abstract Expressionism organized by the Denver Art Museum.[11]