Opening Reception: Unruly Lines

Overview

Join for the opening of Unruly Lines. Refreshments will be served.

The career of Swiss-born artist Sonja Sekula (1918–1963) unfolded at both the center and the margins of surrealist and abstract expressionist circles in Europe and North America. Despite bouts of mental illness, her identity as a gay woman, her peripatetic travels, and her unwillingness to conform to a singular style, Sekula achieved early success as an artist, exhibiting first at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this Century in New York in the early 1940s and then with pioneering gallerist Betty Parsons, who gave her five solo exhibitions between 1948 and 1960.

This exhibition features 34 paintings, drawings, and collages, including five from the Museum’s collection, that demonstrate the broad spectrum of her work. A full-color catalogue, featuring essays by Professor of Art History Jenny Anger and Amy Kan ’27, will accompany the exhibition, which will travel to the Gund Museum at Kenyon College in the second half of 2026.

Address & Contact

For more information, contact:

• Tilly Woodward
• woodward@grinnell.edu