Sonia Gechtoff: Forces of Nature on the Grand Stage: Paintings from 1988 to 1995

SONIA GECHTOFF Forces of Nature on the Grand Stage: Paintings from 1988 to 1995

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY

ISBN: 978-1-7331016-5-3 Printed on the occasion of the exhibition Sonia Gechtoff’s Forces of Nature on the Grand Stage: Paintings from 1988 to 1995 at David Richard Gallery September 10 2019 - October 5, 2019.

Published by: David Richard Gallery, LLC, 211 East 121st Street, New York, NY 10035 www.DavidRichardGallery.com 212-882-1705 | 505-983-9555 DavidRichardGalleries1 DavidRichardGallery Gallery Staff: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, Managers

All rights reserved by David Richard Gallery, LLC. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in whole or part in digital or printed form of any kind whatsoever without the express written permission of David Richard Gallery, LLC.

Artwork: © 1959 - 1995 Sonia Gechtoff Estate Catalogue: © 2019 David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Essay: John Yau, New York, NY

Catalogue Design: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Images: © 2019 David Richard Gallery, LLC, New York, NY Images: Yao Zu Lu

Front cover: Installation - Sonia Gechtoff, Moon Rising, 1989, Acrylic on canvas, 60.25” x 40.25” and Paestum, 1991, Acrylic on canvas, 60.5” x 54.5” Title page: Installation - Sonia Gechtoff, Paestum, 1991, Acrylic on canvas, 60.5” x 54.5” and Guardian of the Green, 1991-2002, Acrylic on canvas, 72.5 x 60.5” Pages 6 - 7: Installation - Sonia Gechtoff, November Sun, 1989, Acrylic on canvas, 60.25” x 34.5”, September Sun, 1995, Acrylic on canvas, 60” x 60” x 1.5”, The Barrier II, 1994, Acrylic on canvas, 54.75” x 34.25”, and Celestial Red, 1994, Acrylic on canvas, 78” x 78” Pages 32 - 33: Installation - Sonia Gechtoff, Troika, 1991-92, Acrylic and graphite on canvas, 54.5” x 54.5”, Riders of the Wave, 1992,

Acrylic and graphite on canvas, 74.5” x 54.5”, and Sentinel, 1991, Acrylic and graphite on canvas, 74.5” x 54.5”

Pages 58 - 59: Installation - Sonia Gechtoff, Moon Rising, 1989, Acrylic on canvas, 60.25” x 40.25” and Paestum, 1991, Acrylic on

canvas, 60.5” x 54.5”, Guardian of the Green, 1991-2002, Acrylic on canvas, 72.5 x 60.5”, and Troika, 1991-92, Acrylic and

graphite on canvas, 54.5” x 54.5”

Pages 66 - 67 - Installation - Sonia Gechtoff, The Barrier II, 1994, Acrylic on canvas, 54.75” x 34.25”, Celestial Red, 1994, Acrylic on

canvas, 78” x 78”, Moon Rising, 1989, Acrylic on canvas, 60.25” x 40.25” and Paestum, 1991, Acrylic on canvas,

60.5” x 54.5”

Back cover: Installation - Sonia Gechtoff, Guardian of the Green, 1991-2002, Acrylic on canvas, 72.5” x 60.5”, Troika, 1991-92, Acrylic

and graphite on canvas, 54.5” x 54.5”, Riders of the Wave, 1992, Acrylic and graphite on canvas, 74.5” x 54.5”, Sentinel,

1991, Acrylic and graphite on canvas, 74.5” x 54.5” and Memory of Cornwall, 1990, Acrylic on canvas, 60.5” x 54.5”

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY

SONIA GECHTOFF Forces of Nature on the Grand Stage: Paintings from 1988 to 1995

David Richard Gallery is pleased to present, Forces of Nature on the Grand Stage: Paintings from 1988 to 1995, a solo exhibition of paintings by artist Sonia Gechtoff (1926 Philadelphia, PA - 2018, New York, NY). At first glance these paintings seem very different from the artist’s earlier works from the 1950s and 60s with their large passages of a single hue, more defined shapes and representational elements. However, closer examination and comparative analysis reveals far more similarities among her oeuvre and throughout the nearly seven-decade career of the artist. And, what might seem like significant differences are really no more than an extension and grander manifestation of many of the hallmarks of and inspiration for Gechtoff’s paintings and graphite drawings from the 50s and 60s.

The current exhibition looks critically at a selection of paintings from 1988 to 1995 that are organized roughly into two visual groups. First, those that have architectural elements that function as framing devices, visual portals to direct the viewer’s attention, an arching structure like the proscenium of a theatre stage or columnar structures. The second group has more of an emphasis on forces of nature including waves, wind and fire as well as spherical structures that reference the sun, moon and celestial bodies. Gechtoff referred to these spheres in the 1960s as “Icons”, inspired by her Russian heritage and interest in religious iconography.

An important realization is that these later career paintings clearly reference and extend Gechtoff’s painting style and approach from the 1950s and 60s with her strong, bold and physical paint stroke, regal colors and thick application of medium to not only apply pigment to the canvas, but to simultaneously build and sculpt the surface with brushy texture and the artist’s hand fully present that melded with the pigment to create something physical and electrifying on the canvas. Also notable is the continued use of black for the grounds in her later works, but with larger fields of saturated color than in her paintings from the 1950s, which was coincident with her move to New York from San Francisco in the late 50s. Another striking feature in her later works is the use of graphite on top of the painted surfaces to add definition, modeling and bring drawing together with the paint brush. A small selection of paintings, drawings and lithographs from the 1950s and 60s will also be available to illustrate several of these formal and compositional similarities.

Many of the features discussed and presented in the paintings from the 80s and 90s were always present in her paintings in the 1950s and 60s. Maybe she used an oil stick instead of graphite, oil medium instead of acrylic, or a palette knife instead of graphite. The real aesthetic difference is that in the 80s, the artist also made a conscious decision to shift her focus from gesture and formal concerns and nuancing her interests in nature and architecture by obfuscating them as a surface treatment and textural detail to blowing them up and making that imagery the focus of the composition and center stage.

Gechtoff was fascinated with forces of nature and she herself was a force of nature on many levels, as an artist, wife, mother, teacher and colleague. She was inspired by her passion for art, but also by grand opera, theatre and the stage. Gechtoff worked with the opera at full volume, which transported her to a different place and unleashed a power that brought together bold pigment, slashing strokes, swirling texture and forces from beyond to create a raging storm or inferno on her canvas.

The exhibition, Sonia Gechtoff, Forces of Nature on the Grand Stage: Paintings from 1988 to 1995, will be on view from September 10 through October 5, 2019 with an opening reception on Sunday, September 15, 2019 from 4:00 to 7:00 PM on the Ground Floor exhibition space

3

at 211 East 121 ST, New York, NY 10035. A digital catalog will be available online. Please contact the gallery at info@DavidRichardGallery.com or call 212-882-1705 for additional information.

About the Presentation: Storms were always brewing underneath and on the surface of Gechtoff’s bold and powerful paintings in the 1950s and 60s. Forces of nature, specifically wind, fire and waves were always present, more as inspiration than literally, in her dramatic and forceful strokes to move thick pigment across the canvas with palette knives and brushes. While the resulting imagery was abstract and non-representational, the strokes and collective swirls on the surface, when viewed close up (and ignoring any color reference), emulated such natural forces. As demonstrated in this current presentation, the paintings from the mid-1980s through the mid-90s directly represent such natural forces, not only as inspiration, but often as the subject and focus of her paintings. The dynamic energy of those forces was always there in decades past, but finally became manifest as the imagery later in her career.

Regal, bold and vibrant colors were always part of Gechtoff’s paintings even in the 1950s and 60s, but they were often in smaller amounts relative to the massive scale of the paintings and the immense amount of black that dominated the visual experience. However, the most important part of the visual experience was the movement of the strong palette knife and brush stokes that collectively brought energy and power to her paintings. Combined with the regal colors and massive scale, Gechtoff’s paintings commanded attention on the wall and in the room.

Listening to grand opera and classical music, in particular Richard Wagner and the Ring Cycle, spirited Gechtoff as she painted, giving rise to the strong gestures, bold palettes and heroic scale of her paintings throughout her career. Her interest in architecture and the earth melded with her love of music and theatre and such elements began to emerge in her paintings in the 1980s and 90s, in particular columns and blocky structures that functioned as a framing device or curved and arched structures that echoed the proscenium of a stage to direct the viewer’s attention to Gechtoff’s classic and symmetrical approach of centrally locating her compositional focus. The columnar structures also worked their way onto center stage creating portals for a view beyond and as devices for crashing waves, eddying winds and the swirling flames of fire to emphasize the power and force behind the natural elements that operate entirely out of human control. Her paintings brought fear as well as awe and respect to these forces of nature that shape and form the earth as well as human lives and spirits – each respected, feared and worshiped by indigenous cultures around the globe. June Wayne, a friend and colleague of Gechtoff’s who founded and ran the Tamarind Lithography Workshop and printed several series of prints for Gechtoff, also had a passion for the forces of nature and realized them in her detailed paintings, prints and tapestries.

Gechtoff introduced an interesting spherical structure that she referred to as “Icons” in the late 1950s that continued into the 1960s. They reference her Russian heritage and the religious iconography she admired. The artist painted several works with this imagery as well as numerous drawings, collaged works and a suite of six hand-colored lithographs from the Tamarind Lithography Workshop from 1963. While the term conjures religious references and imagery, her Icons were always filled with organic abstractions and no reference to anything in particular. These Icons reemerged in mid-1980s with either nothing in the center and thus making more of a direct reference to the sun, moon and celestial bodies, or they filled

with gestural strokes and organic abstractions. Either way, they were frequently combined with imagery of wind or waves and often included gardens, mountains and landscapes in a number of paintings.

Incorporating drawing in her paintings and always drawing with graphite on paper, were both a passion and love for Gechtoff. Drawing on the paintings literally brought the artist’s hand onto the canvas, by providing a tool to directly bring attention and structure to the paintings as a whole, but also to emphasize certain portions and elements. Later, in the 80s and 90s, graphite replaced her oil stick to bring that same emphasis and attention to detail.

The pencil drawings from the 1950s, just like her use of the palette knife on her paintings, involved more than just wrist action, Gechtoff put her entire arm, body and soul into each gesture and motion, getting the longest, fullest strokes of graphite and paint possible. That power stroke and wielding the palette knife to mobilize a large amount of pigment became the artist’s signature early on in San Francisco and remained so throughout her career.

Graphite is the tool and element that ties the ribbon around Gechtoff’s oeuvre, both on paper and on canvas.

Also included in the exhibition and online catalog as reference materials are drawings from the 1950s to illustrate the graphite and bold strokes that culminated in the surface swirls evoking the forces of nature. The Icon lithographic series from the Tamarind Lithography Workshop and small selection of paintings from the 1950s and 60s emphasize the continuum of bold strokes of graphite and paint and recurrence of the spherical Icon structure and natural forces into the 80s and 90s.

5

Sonia Gechtoff Hiroshige Revisited, 1988 Oil on canvas 58.25” x 40.5” Framed size - 59.25” x 41.25” x 1.75”

9

Sonia Gechtoff November Sun, 1989 Acrylic on canvas 60.25” x 34.5” Framed size - 61.25” x 35.5” x 1.75”

11

Sonia Gechtoff September Sun, 1995 Acrylic on canvas 60” x 60” x 1.5”

13

Sonia Gechtoff The Barrier II, 1994 Acrylic on canvas 54.75” x 34.25” Framed size - 55.75” x 35.25” x 1.75”

15

Sonia Gechtoff Celestial Red, 1994 Acrylic on canvas 78” x 78” Framed size - 73.5” x 54.5” x 2”

17

Sonia Gechtoff Moon Rising, 1989 Acrylic on canvas 60.25” x 40.25” Framed size - 61.25” x 41.25” x 1.75”

19

Sonia Gechtoff Paestum, 1991 Acrylic on canvas 60.5” x 54.5” Framed size - 61.5” x 55.5” x 2”

21

Sonia Gechtoff Guardian of the Green, 1991-2002 Acrylic on canvas 72.5” x 60.5” Framed size - 73.5” x 54.5” x 2”

23

Sonia Gechtoff Troika, 1991-92 Acrylic and graphite on canvas 54.5” x 54.5” Framed size 55.5” x 55.5” x 2”

25

Sonia Gechtoff Riders of the Wave, 1992 Acrylic and graphite on canvas 74.5” x 54.5” Framed size - 75.5” x 55.5” x 2”

27

Sonia Gechtoff Sentinel, 1991 Acrylic and graphite on canvas 74.5” x 54.5” Framed size - 75.5” x 55.5” x 2”

29

Sonia Gechtoff Memory of Cornwall, 1990 Acrylic on canvas 60.5” x 54.5” Framed size - 61.5” x 55.5” x 2”

31

33

Sonia Gechtoff The Chase, 1959 Oil on canvas 72” x 72”

35

Sonia Gechtoff The Queen, 1958 Oil on canvas 84” x 66.5”

37

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1958 Graphite on paper 28.5” x 22.5”

39

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1960 Graphite on paper 22.5” x 28.5”

41

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1960 Graphite on paper 28.5” x 22.5”

43

Sonia Gechtoff Embers I, 1965 Graphite on paper 12” x 9”

44

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1965 Graphite on paper 12” x 9”

45

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1965 Graphite on paper 12” x 9”

46

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1965 Graphite on paper 12” x 9”

47

Sonia Gechtoff Flag Icon, 1962-63 Pastel, graphite and collage 18.75” x 14.75”

49

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1963 Lithograph on paper 15 x 18” Edition of 20 Tamarind

50

Sonia Gechtoff 6 Icon Suite, 1963 Lithograph on paper 15” x 18” Edition of 20 Tamarind

51

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1963 Lithograph on paper 15” x 18” Edition of 20 Tamarind

52

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1963 Lithograph on paper 15” x 18” Edition of 20 Tamarind

53

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1963 Lithograph on paper 15” x 18” Edition of 20 Tamarind

54

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1963 Lithograph on paper 15” x 18” Edition of 20 Tamarind

55

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1963 Lithograph on paper 15” x 18” Edition of 20 Tamarind

56

Sonia Gechtoff Untitled, 1963 Lithograph on paper 15” x 18” Edition of 20 Tamarind

57

60

61

62

Sonia Gechtoff, was born and raised in Philadelphia. After graduating in 1950 from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, she moved to San Francisco in 1951 where she was greatly influenced by the painting of Clyfford Still. She taught at the California School of Fine Art working alongside Hassel Smith and Elmer Bischoff and associated with other Bay Area Abstract Expressionist painters such as Madeleine Diamond, Lilly Fenichel, Deborah Remington, Jay DeFeo and James Kelly, who she later married. San Francisco had a tremendous impact on Gechtoff, she was very much involved in the unique cultural scene and felt the local support. It is where she had her greatest career achievements, such as developing her bold use of the palette knife to create long, sharp strokes of pigment across the canvas and the corresponding early recognition with solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Art (currently SFMoMA) and De Young Museum. Gechtoff moved to New York in 1958 and worked there until she passed away in early 2018. Given her interests in figuration, architecture, landscape and earth elements, representational elements became more prevalent in her paintings and drawings, while abstraction and gestural brush strokes remained constant. She switched from oil to acrylic paint and traded the palette knife for graphite to maintain strong defining strokes and boundaries in her work.

Gechtoff’s artworks are included in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Achenbach Foundation, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Academy of Design, New York; Oakland Museum of Art, California; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Museum of Art, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California; and Worcester Museum of Art, Massachusetts, among others. Most recently, her paintings were included in the very important exhibition, Women of Abstract Expressionism at the Denver Museum of Art in 2016 that subsequently traveled to the Mint Museum and the Palm Springs Museum of Art in 2017.

Biography Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1926 – 2018 New York, NY Education Philadelphia Museum School of Art, 1950 Awards Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 1994, 89, 98, 2002 Works on Paper, Mid-Atlantic

Regional NEA Grant, 1988 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, 1987 Ford Foundation Fellowship to Tamarind Lithography, Los Angeles, 1963 Lee Krasner Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013 Solo Exhibitions Sonia Gechtoff: Forces of Nature on the Grand Stage: Paintings from 1988 to 1995, 2019

David Richard Gallery, New York, NY Sonia Gechtoff: Drawings from the early 1960’s, 2017, Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art, NY Sonia Gechtoff, The Ferus Years, 2011, Nyehaus Gallery, New York, NY Ferus in the 50’s solo show, Nyehaus Gallery, NYC, 2011-2012 University Center Gallery,

Adelphi University, New York, 1993, 1991 Kraushaar Galleries, New York, 1992, 1990,

1995, 1998 Witkin Galleries, New York, 1989, 1984 Works on Paper, 1975-1987, 1987, 1985, 1983, 1982, 1980, 1979 Gruenebaum Gallery,

New York, NY Gloria Cortella Gallery, New York, 1978, 1976 Poindexter Gallery, New York, 1960, 1959 Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1959, 1957 De Young Museum, San Francisco, California, 1957 Six Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1955

Group Exhibitions Focus On Abstract Gems: Small Paintings, Sculptures, and Paper Pieces, 2018, Anita

Shapolsky Gallery, New York, NY Judith Godwin, 2017 Berry Campbell, New York, NY Women of Abstract Expressionism, 2017, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA American Women and Abstraction, 2016, Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art, New York, NY Women of Abstract Expressionism, 2016, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO Post-War & Contemporary Artists, 2016, Waterhouse & Dodd, New York, NY Women of Abstract Expressionism, 2016, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC Annual 2014: Redefining Tradition, 2014, National Academy Museum and School of Fine

Arts, New York, NY Momentum: An Experiment In The Unexpected, 2014 San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA Renaissance on Fillmore, 1955-65, 2012, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA Bella Pacifica-Bay Area Abstract Expressionism, 2011, Nyehaus and David Nolan Galleries,

New York, NY A Culture of Spontaneity: San Francisco Abstract Expressionism from the Permanent Collection, 2008, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, Whitney Museum of Art- Drawing Into Prints- Recent acquisitions, 2006 Menil Collection,

Houston, TX- Recent acquisition West Coast Abstract Expressionism- 2006 Selections-Works on Paper, 1987, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA America Drawn and Matched, 1977, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Extraordinary Women, 1977, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC California Painting and Sculpture-Modern Era, 1976-1977, San Francisco Museum of Modern

Art, San Franciso, CA Selected by Museum of Modern Art, New York, International Council, South America, American Abstract Drawings and Watercolors, 1962 Sao Paolo, Brazil, VI Bienal do Museu de Arte Moderna, 1961 60 American Painters, 1960, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN Young America, 1960, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Annual, 1958 American Section, Paris, France, 1st Paris Bienale, 1958 17 American Painters, 1958, USA Pavilion, Brussels World Fair, traveled to U.S.I.S. Gallery,

London, England Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie International, 1958 Younger Americans, 1954, Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY Permanent Collections Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland Achenbach Foundation, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, New York National Academy of Design, New York Oakland Museum of Art, California San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Museum of Art, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California Worcester Museum of Art, Massachusetts

63

DAVID RICHARD GALLERY