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Sonia Sekula Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, b. 1918 - d. 1963

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        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Jun. 25, 2024

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF2,000 - CHF3,000

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 Ohne Titel Öl und Grattage auf Papier unten in der Mitte signiert Sekula 50 x 34,5 cm

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • SONJA SEKULA
          Jun. 12, 2024

          SONJA SEKULA

          Est: CHF2,000 - CHF4,000

          (Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich) Komposition in Blau. 1961. Aquarell auf Papier. Unten rechts in Bleistift signiert und datiert. Blattgrösse 21x30,9 cm. Gerahmt. - Blatt minimst gebräunt. Blatt wurde vollflächig auf Rückkarton montiert.

          Schuler Auktionen
        • Sekula Sonja
          Jun. 01, 2024

          Sekula Sonja

          Est: CHF1,200 - CHF1,500

          Heimfahrt Unten rechts signiert. Gerahmt Ausrufdatum: 01.06.2024 Ungefähre Ausrufzeit: 16:44

          Auktionshaus Zofingen
        • SONIA SEKULA (1918 - 1963, SWISS/AMERICAN) Untitled.
          May. 02, 2024

          SONIA SEKULA (1918 - 1963, SWISS/AMERICAN) Untitled.

          Est: $1,500 - $2,500

          SONIA SEKULA (1918 - 1963, SWISS/AMERICAN) Untitled. Gouache on paper. Signed, Sekula, lower right. 165x210 mm; 6½x8¼ inches. Provenance: Estate of the artist; Galerie Raphaël Lévy, Zurich, Switzerland; Private collection.

          Swann Auction Galleries
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Mar. 20, 2024

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF1,500 - CHF2,000

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 Diavolos Gouache auf Papier unten rechts bezeichnet und signiert Diavolos-300n! Sekula 42 x 59.5 cm

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Mar. 20, 2024

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF2,000 - CHF3,000

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 Ohne Titel, 1962 Aquarell, Tinte und Gouache auf Papier unten links signiert und datiert Sekula 62 29.5 x 20.4 cm *For this lot VAT of 8,1% will also be charged on the hammer price.

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • SEKULA, SONJA
          Dec. 15, 2023

          SEKULA, SONJA

          Est: CHF2,000 - CHF3,000

          (Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich) Ohne Titel. 1958. Öl auf Papier mit Collage. Unten rechts in Buntstift signiert und datiert. Lichtmass 68,8x48,8 cm. Gerahmt. - Dieses Werk wurde nicht ausgerahmt.

          Schuler Auktionen
        • Sonja Sekula - Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich
          Oct. 21, 2023

          Sonja Sekula - Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich

          Est: CHF3,800 - CHF4,800

          Sonja Sekula Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich «Ohne Titel» – 1962 Unten links signiert und datiert {Sekula 62}. Öl und Gouache a/Papier, 51 × 36 cm

          Galerie Gloggner
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Jun. 21, 2023

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF2,500 - CHF3,500

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 Diavolos Gouache auf Papier unten rechts bezeichnet und signiert Diavolos-300n! Sekula 42 x 59,5 cm

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Mar. 22, 2023

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF3,000 - CHF5,000

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 Ohne Titel Tusche und Gouache auf Papier unten rechts signiert Sekula 49,5 x 69,5 cm

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Mar. 22, 2023

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF1,500 - CHF2,000

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 Ohne Titel, 1962 Öl auf Papier unten rechts signiert und datiert SEKULA, 11.2.962 58,5 x 34 cm (Lichtmass) *For this lot VAT of 7,7% will also be charged on the hammer price.

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Mar. 22, 2023

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF1,000 - CHF1,500

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 To be able to work, 1958 Tusche auf Papier unten links bezeichnet To be able to work also when unable inwardly to formulate. Not to wait for the "must" but just to over come unten rechts signiert, nummeriert und datiert S. SeKula I 1958 21 x 15 cm

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • SEKULA, SONJA
          Dec. 16, 2022

          SEKULA, SONJA

          Est: CHF500 - CHF800

          (Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich) "Together". 1957. Gouache auf Papier. Unten rechts in Bleistift signiert, datiert und betitelt. Blattgrösse 36x25,7 cm. Gerahmt. - Blatt minimst gebräunt und wenig fleckig. Verso vollflächig an Rückkarton montiert.

          Schuler Auktionen
        • SEKULA, SONJA
          Sep. 23, 2022

          SEKULA, SONJA

          Est: CHF2,000 - CHF3,000

          (Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich) "Garden-Party". 1957. Grattage auf Karton. Unten rechts signiert und datiert. Verso betitelt, mit Stempel: "Galerie Palette Zürich" und Etikett einer Gallery in New York. Kartonmasse 49x31,5 cm. - Ränder und Ecken bestossen mit Blattverlust. Leicht schmutzig. Verso mit zwei montierten Aufhängungen am oberen Rand.

          Schuler Auktionen
        • SEKULA, SONJA
          Jun. 24, 2022

          SEKULA, SONJA

          Est: CHF700 - CHF1,000

          (Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich) Ohne Titel. 1959. Mischtechnik und Collage auf Papier. Unten rechts in Bleistift signiert und datiert. Blattgrösse 14,9x21,1 cm. Gerahmt. - Blatt leicht verblasst und leicht gewellt. Dunklere Lichtränder. Ränder und Ecken minimst bestossen. Am rechten Rand mit Abrrisspuren eines Skizzenblocks. Verso mit Klebrestspuren und in allen Ecken an Passepartout montiert.

          Schuler Auktionen
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Jun. 22, 2022

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF2,000 - CHF3,000

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 Ohne Titel, 1961 Aquarell und Tusche auf Papier unten rechts der Mitte signiert und datiert Sekula XI 61 62,5 x 48,5 cm *For this lot VAT of 7,7% will also be charged on the hammer price.

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Jun. 22, 2022

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF1,500 - CHF2,000

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 Das Gewitter machen, 1951 Gouache und Tusche auf Papier unten rechts signiert und datiert Sekula 51 unten links bezeichnet Das Gewitter machen 30 x 22,5 cm *For this lot VAT of 7,7% will also be charged on the hammer price.

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sonja Sekula (Swiss 1918-1963)
          May. 26, 2022

          Sonja Sekula (Swiss 1918-1963)

          Est: £1,000 - £1,500

          Sonja Sekula (Swiss 1918-1963) Révrete 44 inscribed 'Les avalanches de la tristese et le soleil des bas du jardin obscure...Petit poeme pour Gigi, de Sonja' (lower left) ink and pen on paper 21.5 x 14cm Provenance: Collection of the late Gigi Richter (Irmingard Emma Antonia Crompton) Dedicated to noted botanist and art conservator, Gigi Richter, the poem inscribed in the left-hand margin of the present lot translates to “the avalanches of sadness and the sun from the bottom of the dark garden”. Dated 1944, the work was executed whilst both Gigi Richter and Sonja Sekula were living in New York City and moving within the same social circles made up of both the New York Surrealists and the emerging generation of Abstract Expressionists. During this time, Richter was working as a laboratory assistant at the Brooklyn Museum, whilst Sekula was emerging as one of the significant female voices in the art world, having just been featured as part of Peggy Guggenheim’s 1943 exhibition, 31 Women. Whilst the dedication to Richter documents the friendship between the pair, the quiet pathos of the poem also demonstrates the melancholia that stalked Sekula’s adult life. Described by Robert Motherwell as ‘like a screwed-up poet; very intense, a very depressed person…She was very vulnerable and fragile’, Sekula was placed in several psychiatric facilities during her life. In 1963, aged 45, Sekula sadly took her own life, though she remains celebrated as a seminal figure in mid-20th century art.

          Cheffins
        • Sonia Sekula ''Close to a Wave'' 1954 Gouache
          Oct. 21, 2021

          Sonia Sekula ''Close to a Wave'' 1954 Gouache

          Est: $1,000 - $2,000

          Sonia Sekula (1918-1963 American) ''Close to a Wave'' 1954 Gouache on Paper 8.5''x11'' Sight. Signed and dated l.r. Plasteel fine framing 16''x18.5''. Excellent condition. From the family collection of Willis F. Woods, former director at the Detroit Institute of Arts and Executive Director at the Seattle Art Museum (1974-1979).

          MBA Seattle Auction LLC
        • SEKULA, SONJA
          Jun. 18, 2021

          SEKULA, SONJA

          Est: CHF500 - CHF800

          (Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich) Ohne Titel. Schwarz/Gelb. 1961. Öl auf Papier. Unten links in Bleistift signiert und mit Prägestempel: "Geraco". Verso in Bleistift signiert und datiert. Blattgrösse 33,7x25 cm. -Blatt gebräunt und leicht fleckig. Am oberen Rand mit Abrissspuren eines Skizzenblocks. Verso mit Klebrestspuren.

          Schuler Auktionen
        • SEKULA, SONJA
          Jun. 18, 2021

          SEKULA, SONJA

          Est: CHF800 - CHF1,400

          (Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich) Ohne Titel. 1955. Gouache auf Papier. Unten rechts signiert und datiert. In der unteren rechten Ecke unleserlich nummeriert. Blattgrösse 31x41 cm. Gerahmt. -Blatt leicht gebräunt und etwas fleckig. Ränder und Ecken minimst bestossen. Am linken Rand mit Abrissspuren eines Skizzenblocks. Verso am oberen Rand partiell an Rückkarton montiert.

          Schuler Auktionen
        • Sonia (Sonja Sakula) Sekula, Swiss/American 1918-1963, Petit Poem Dramatic pour Ma Mere, 1959, ink and crayon on paper, 3"H x 6"W
          May. 01, 2021

          Sonia (Sonja Sakula) Sekula, Swiss/American 1918-1963, Petit Poem Dramatic pour Ma Mere, 1959, ink and crayon on paper, 3"H x 6"W

          Est: $400 - $600

          Sonia (Sonja Sakula) Sekula Swiss/American, 1918-1963 Petit Poem Dramatic pour Ma Mere, 1959 ink and crayon on paper signed and dated lower right. From the estate of author William Goyen. From Wikipedia: Sonia was a Swiss-born 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 lived in America from 1936 to 1955. She attended Sarah Lawrence College. 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.

          Ripley Auctions
        • Sonja Sekula (1918-1963)
          Apr. 27, 2021

          Sonja Sekula (1918-1963)

          Est: CHF800 - CHF1,200

          Sonja Sekula (1918-1963) Moment in Blue, gouache et encre, signée, 50x37,5 cm. Collection André Kuenzi (1916-2005)

          Geneve Encheres
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Apr. 06, 2021

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF600 - CHF800

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 Ohne Titel, 1959 unten rechts signiert und datiert S. Sekula XI.7.59 *For this lot VAT of 7,7% will also be charged on the hammer price.

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Étude d'août
          Nov. 24, 2020

          Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Étude d'août

          Est: CHF800 - CHF1,200

          Signed lower right, dated and titled: S. Sekula, 1959, Étude d'août. (Frame).

          Germann Auction House Ltd
        • Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Each Time - Chaque fois
          Nov. 24, 2020

          Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Each Time - Chaque fois

          Est: CHF500 - CHF700

          Signed lower center: Sekula. Titled and dated: Each Time - Chaque Fois, 57.XI. (Frame).

          Germann Auction House Ltd
        • Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Étude d'août
          Nov. 24, 2020

          Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Étude d'août

          Est: CHF1,000 - CHF1,500

          Signed lower right, dated and titled: Sekula, 59, Étude d'août. (Frame).

          Germann Auction House Ltd
        • Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, November + a day
          Nov. 24, 2020

          Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, November + a day

          Est: CHF500 - CHF900

          Signed lower right, dated and titled: Sekula, XI.51, November + a day. (Frame).

          Germann Auction House Ltd
        • Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Chaque jour - premier - dernier amour
          Nov. 24, 2020

          Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Chaque jour - premier - dernier amour

          Est: CHF500 - CHF900

          Signed lower right: Sekula. (Frame).

          Germann Auction House Ltd
        • SONJA SEKULA (1918-1963) Les avalanches de la tristesse et le soleil d
          Sep. 29, 2020

          SONJA SEKULA (1918-1963) Les avalanches de la tristesse et le soleil d

          Est: CHF2,500 - CHF3,500

          SONJA SEKULA (1918-1963) Les avalanches de la tristesse et le soleil des bas du jardin obscure titled and inscribed ' Les avalanches de la tristesse et le soleil des bas du jardin obscure, Petit poème pour Gigi, de Sonja ' (lower left) ink and pen on paper 21,5 x 13,7 cm. ,

          Christie's
        • SONJA SEKULA (1918-1963) Attente d'Écume signed with
          Sep. 29, 2020

          SONJA SEKULA (1918-1963) Attente d'Écume signed with

          Est: CHF6,000 - CHF8,000

          SONJA SEKULA (1918-1963) Attente d'Écume signed with the artist's initials and titled ' SS Attente d'Écume ' (on the stretcher) oil on canvas 40,5 x 50 cm. Painted in 1944 ,

          Christie's
        • Sonja / Sonia Sekula, (Swiss-American, 1918-1963), Foam, 1949, gouache on paper, 7"H x 11 3/4"W (image), 16 3/4"H x 14 3/4"W (frame).
          Sep. 26, 2020

          Sonja / Sonia Sekula, (Swiss-American, 1918-1963), Foam, 1949, gouache on paper, 7"H x 11 3/4"W (image), 16 3/4"H x 14 3/4"W (frame).

          Est: $1,000 - $2,000

          Sonja / Sonia Sekula (Swiss-American, 1918-1963) Foam, 1949 gouache on paper signed, titled and dated lower right. Provenance: Betty Parsons Gallery, New York. Woodward Gallery, New York. Biography from the archives of AskArt: Born in Switzerland of a Swiss mother and a Hungarian father, she came with her parents to the U.S. in 1936. She attended George Grosz's private art school on Long Island and enrolled at the Art Students League, studying with Morris Kantor and Raphael Soyer. As a young person she associated with Matta, Duchamp and Ernst, artist friends of her parents. She had chronic bouts of mental illness, and, suffering a failed love affair with a woman and the decline in acceptance of her work, she committed suicide in Switzerland. She is remembered as an important artist of the 1940s, an abstractionist in a time of Surrealism and Abstraction. 7"H x 11 3/4"W (image), 16 3/4"H x 14 3/4"W (frame).

          Ripley Auctions
        • Sonja Sekula 1918–1963
          Sep. 23, 2020

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963

          Est: CHF1,000 - CHF1,500

          Sonja Sekula 1918–1963 growing, near sea, 1957 unten rechts signiert und datiert Sekula 57 unten in der Mitte bezeichnet growing, near sea *For this lot VAT of 7,7% will also be charged on the hammer price. RefCon17920

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963)
          Jun. 27, 2020

          Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963)

          Est: CHF300 - CHF600

          Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963) Sechs Serigraphien, 15/40, hrsg. Weihnachten 1967 43 x 34,5 x 1,7 cm

          Galerie Moenius
        • Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963)
          Jun. 25, 2020

          Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963)

          Est: CHF700 - CHF1,400

          Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963) Ohne Titel Wasserfarbe, Buntstift (?) auf Papier, mit Bleistift signiert und datiert 1961 33 x 22,5 cm, Rahmen: 51,5 x 39,5 cm RefInt12620

          Galerie Moenius
        • Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963)
          Jun. 25, 2020

          Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963)

          Est: CHF400 - CHF800

          Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963) Ohne Titel Wasserfarbe und Buntstift (?) auf Papier, signert und datiert 3.3.1961 ca. 21 x 12 cm, Rahmen: 35,5 x 25,5 cm RefInt12620

          Galerie Moenius
        • Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963)
          Jun. 25, 2020

          Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963)

          Est: CHF700 - CHF1,400

          Sonia SEKULA (1918-1963) ZIG-ZAG Öl auf Zeichenblock-Papier, in der Mitte signiert, verso voll signiert, datiert und bezeichnet: oil, Werknr. 101. 25 x 33,5 cm, Rahmen: 50,5 x 40,5 cm Provenienz: Westschweizer Privatbesitz. RefInt12620

          Galerie Moenius
        • Sonja Sekula (1918–1963)
          Jun. 24, 2020

          Sonja Sekula (1918–1963)

          Est: CHF20,000 - CHF30,000

          Evolution des hommes et des comètes

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sonja Sekula (1918–1963)
          Jun. 24, 2020

          Sonja Sekula (1918–1963)

          Est: CHF2,000 - CHF3,000

          Ohne Titel

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sonja Sekula (1918–1963)
          Jun. 24, 2020

          Sonja Sekula (1918–1963)

          Est: CHF8,000 - CHF12,000

          Nach-Mittag

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Semence d'onde
          Jun. 23, 2020

          Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Semence d'onde

          Est: CHF1,000 - CHF1,500

          Gouache. Signed and dated lower right: Sekula, 59. (Frame).

          Germann Auction House Ltd
        • Sonia Sekula, (New York / Switzerland, 1918-1963), untitled, 1959, mixed media collage with oil, tissue paper and sand, 21 1/2"H x 1...
          May. 16, 2020

          Sonia Sekula, (New York / Switzerland, 1918-1963), untitled, 1959, mixed media collage with oil, tissue paper and sand, 21 1/2"H x 1...

          Est: $800 - $1,200

          Sonia Sekula (New York / Switzerland, 1918-1963) untitled, 1959 mixed media collage with oil, tissue paper and sand Gimpel & Hanover Galerie Zurich label verso. signed lower center. From Ask Art: Born in Switzerland of a Swiss mother and a Hungarian father, she came with her parents to the U.S. in 1936. She attended George Grosz's private art school on Long Island and enrolled at the Art Students League, studying with Morris Kantor and Raphael Soyer. As a young person she associated with Matta, Duchamp and Ernst, artist friends of her parents. She had chronic bouts of mental illness, and, suffering a failed love affair with a woman and the decline in acceptance of her work, she committed suicide in Switzerland. She is remembered as an important artist of the 1940s, an abstractionist in a time of Surrealism and Abstraction. 21 1/2"H x 10 1/2"W (sight), 27 3/4"H x 16 3/4"W (frame)

          Ripley Auctions
        • SEKULA, SONJA
          Dec. 13, 2019

          SEKULA, SONJA

          Est: CHF1,800 - CHF2,500

          (Luzern 1918–1963 Zürich) Ohne Titel. 1959. Mischtechnik auf Papier. Unten rechts in Bleistift signiert und datiert: "59.VI.". Blattgrösse 60,5x39 cm. Gerahmt. -Blatt leicht gewellt. Ränder und Ecken bestossen mit leichtem Farbverlust durch Abrieb.

          Schuler Auktionen
        • Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Semence d'onde, 1959
          Nov. 26, 2019

          Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Semence d'onde, 1959

          Est: CHF1,500 - CHF2,000

          Gouache. Signed and dated lower right: Sekula, 59. (Frame).

          Germann Auction House Ltd
        • Sonia Sekula (Swiss/American, 1918-1963) Abstract 1947 Oil Painting
          Feb. 17, 2019

          Sonia Sekula (Swiss/American, 1918-1963) Abstract 1947 Oil Painting

          Est: $4,000 - $6,000

          Sonia Sekula (Swiss/American, 1918-1963) Oil Painting. Les Dernier Chateau (The Last Castle). Oil painting on canvas. Signed and titled lower right S. Sekula ’47 Les Dernier Chateau (The Last Castle). Painting is numbered in pencil on back of canvas, #90. Stretcher is numbered and titled with a Leo Rehfeld framers label, NY. In trapezium shape, painting measures 24 inches high,12.5 inches wide at top and 16 inches at the bottom. Framed with a flat wooden strip and faced with aluminum trim. In good condition with three small pinholes. Small professionally repaired 3 inch slit lower right. Painting is from a Southold, New York estate. From Sept. 20, 1996 NY Times article by Grace Glueck : If ever an artist started out right, it was Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). Born in Switzerland, the only child of well-to-do parents, she moved to New York City with them in 1936, and in the family's Park Avenue apartment met a wide range of European artists and writers exiled by the war. Thus launched in cultural circles, Sekula -- an ethereal, ''poetic'' young woman who studied art at Sarah Lawrence College and at the Art Students League -- became, in the 1940's, a sort of golden girl of the Surrealists and Abstract Expressionists; a lovely butterfly bathed in the aura of such friends and sometime collaborators as Andre Breton, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell. She was much influenced by their work and by the Surrealist concept of automatic writing, which played a key role in the development of Abstract Expressionism. She showed at two of Manhattan's hottest spaces at the time, the Peggy Guggenheim and the Betty Parsons galleries; published a text in the Surrealist magazine VVV and got to know the composers Morton Feldman and John Cage and the choreographer Merce Cunningham (for whom she designed costumes). ''She was unusually gifted; her work had conviction, an authenticity that made you wonder who this person is and what is going to happen to all this talent,'' Feldman said in a 1971 interview. What did happen is a poignant story. Emotionally fragile, Sekula had her first psychotic breakdown at the age of 21, and for the rest of her life was in and out of mental institutions. Nagged by doubts about her work, she was unable to produce for long periods. The financial strain of her illness forced the family back to Switzerland, where she had to live with her parents. Finally, at the age of 45, cut off from the New York art world, her friendships and her resources worn thin, she hanged herself in her studio. Now, neglected even in feminist annals, Sekula's work has undergone something of a revival in her native country. The exhibition now at the Swiss Institute New York is an abridgement of a retrospective organized earlier this summer at the Kunstmuseum in Winterthur, Switzerland by the museum's director, Dieter Schwarz. It is the first Sekula show in the United States since a 1971 exhibition at the Finch College Art Gallery in Manhattan. Turning away, like others of her circle, from the cliches of French Cubism, Sekula relied heavily on automatic writing, a kind of doodling in which the pen or brush, guided by the subconscious, is allowed to roam freely over the surface, making marks theoretically liberated from prevailing modes. From this, her work took on a strong linear structure. ''African Moonsun'' (1945), the earliest canvas in the show, in subdued ''night'' colors of blue, brown and black, is a vigorous, intense synthesis of biomorphic and tree- or boat-shaped forms, accented, outlined and tied together with an irregular network of white lines. Another potent influence was American Indian culture, especially that of the Northwest coast. You can see it in ''Le Bon Dieu (the Prophet)'' (1947-48), a thinly colored totemic painting that echoes tribal images.These influences were filtered through the work of other artists, among them the Chilean-born Roberto Matta, in whose spacey metaphysical canvases biomorphic forms seem to float in infinity; Wifredo Lam, a Cuban whose paintings were based on African sculpture and primitive mythology, and Mark Tobey, an American noted for his linear calligraphy, or ''white writing.'' Close to their concepts are such Sekula paintings as ''Mechanics, With Sentiments'' (1948) and ''Under the Bridges'' (1949), each a composition of intricately drawn linear verticals climbing through space, accented by small painted passages in pale colors. Unlike the Abstract Expressionist stars she knew, Sekula never really developed a big ''signature'' style of her own. But if her work is derivative, she absorbed the lessons well. And her best paintings -- of the late 1940's and early 50's -- have a vibrancy and elegance all their own. They are distinguished by overall calligraphic markings and incidents on painted grounds, as in ''Silence'' (1951), a large canvas in misty grays. Thin white lines course down the surface like gentle rain; delicate black scribbles and symbols march over them like random graffiti. A particularly beautiful smaller work on paper is ''Grace'' (1952), a Klee-like drawing that incorporates fragments of writing along with disk and crescent shapes in white on red and black grounds. ''Premonition'' (1956), another arresting work on paper, deploys overtly religious symbolism, white crosses and steeples drawn on a black ground with patches of blue. As her world diminished, Sekula's work became more modest in scope, less publicly oriented and more inward-looking. Of no small interest here are the collages, sketchbooks, haiku and poem-drawings of her last years, as she shook off the art world and entered into a vivid dialogue with herself.

          Myers Fine Art
        • Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Ansicht...! Preview
          Nov. 20, 2018

          Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Ansicht...! Preview

          Est: CHF500 - CHF800

          Collage and india ink on paper. Signed and dated center right and lower right: Sekula, 57. Titled lower left: Ansicht...! Preview. (Frame).

          Germann Auction House Ltd
        • Sonja Sekula
          Jun. 20, 2018

          Sonja Sekula

          Est: CHF600 - CHF900

          September RefContemporaryArt

          Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
        • Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Untitled
          Jun. 04, 2018

          Sekula Sonja, 1918-1963, Untitled

          Est: CHF10,000 - CHF15,000

          Gouache. Signed and dated lower right: Sonja Sekula, 46.

          Germann Auction House Ltd
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