Sonia 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.

She met the surrealists in exile in New York during 1942. On 25 April 1963, she hanged herself in her studio in Zurich after many years of mental health issues. She is buried in St. Moritz as she had requested in a letter to her mother.

Sekula moved to New York in 1936, when her father moved his philatelic business there. 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."

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. the Museum of Modern Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Walker Art Center. In 2016 her biography was included in the exhibition catalogue Women of Abstract Expressionism organized by the Denver Art Museum.

Personal life Sonja was extremely passionate about her artwork, expressing how proud she was to be around all the other artists and movements in New York during the 1940s. Her instructor described her as being "easy to get along with" yet also being "highly disturbed"

On a trip to Tangier in 1950 to meet Paul Bowles, Joseph Glasco was introduced to Sekula by Jane Bowles. Sekula and Glasco remained friends when they returned to New York. In April 1951, the day after the opening of her third exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery, Sekula suffered a breakdown and had to be taken to the psychiatric clinic of the New York Hospital in White Plains by Manina Thoren and Joseph Glasco.

Sonja Sekula was also extremely open about her homosexuality, and made frequent references to it in her writings and journals. In one entry, she wrote the following:1960: "Let homosexuality be forgiven, let us hope that she will be welcome in the Greek mythology and protected by pagan nature gods as well for most often she did not sin against nature but tried to be true to the law of her own - To feel guilt about having loved a being of your own kind body and soul is hopeless - let us hope there were many pure moments in each of these attractions and loves - into which the realm of sphere and eternity and silence entered as well." 1948 - Betty Parsons Gallery, New York 1950 - 'Sonja Sekula (First Exhibition in London)', London Gallery, London 1953 - Group Show "Nine Women Painters", Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont 1957 - Galerie Palette, Zurich, Switzerland 1996 - Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland 1996 - Sonja Sekula (1918–1963): A Retrospective, Swiss Institute, New York, USA (12 September - 26 October) 2017 - Sonja Sekula: A Survey, Peter Blum Gallery, New York 2019 - "Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th St." Katonah Museum of Art, Westchester County, NY. 2023 - Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 Whitechapel Gallery, London