Sonia Gechtoff

Sonia Gechtoff began her career immersed in the heady culture of the San Francisco Bay Area Beat Generation, producing abstract paintings and drawings with tantalizing hints of figuration. Inspired by poetry, Gechtoff approaches her work with a belief in the expressive power of color, individual brushstrokes, and thickly applied oil paint. Many of her works, like The Angel (1953-55), are abstracted self-portraits—through vibrant colors and thick, energetic brushstrokes, Gechtoff creates the suggestion of a central figure, whose abundant arms-cum-wings stretch across the picture plane. Later in her career, after moving to New York, Gechtoff began drawing inspiration from the Brooklyn Bridge, classical architecture, and the sea, whose forms are recognizable in her later series of flat, understated, collage-like paintings.