Sonja Sekula, Animal Without Subject of War, 1944, Öl auf Leinwand, 46 × 66 cm, Kunstmuseum Luzern
Did New York really steal the idea of modern art from Paris around 1945? One way or the other, a geographical shift in the balance of powers in western art did take place around that time. This radical change constitutes the backdrop to our summer exhibition Sonja Sekula, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock & Friends. Sonja Sekula (1918-1963) moved with her parents from Lucerne to New York in summer 1936. There the budding artist quickly became part of the lively art scene, getting to know the surrealist emigrés from Europe gathered around André Breton and Marcel Duchamp and making contact with Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery. Starting from Surrealism and under the influence of Native American folk art, Sonja Sekula developed her own independent oeuvre and exhibited together with Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock as part of the New York avant-garde. Her creative work was interrupted repeatedly by psychological crises, with the result that she is less well known than her companions of that time. In 2016 it will be possible to rediscover her in Lucerne in their company.
