#art, Lucia Wilcox, Surrealist Artist Forgotten… Women Artists Series 2025

I must admit that until quite recently, when I ran across an article about her, I had never heard of Lucia Wilcox. But seeing that she had been an influential painter, especially for the surrealism movement, I could not leave her behind. However, there is not much about her to be found.

For starters she was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1902 (although some say 1899). She moved to Paris as a young woman and there met Picasso, Léger and other young aspiring artists. She wanted to study art and possibly did at the Académie Ranson. André Derain, a fauvist, became her mentor.

In 1938, with war on Europe’s horizon Wilcox left for the United States. She settled in Amagansett, Long Island where she became friends with Jackson Pollock, Frederick Kiesler, Max Ernst, and others. In New York Lucia had her first solos show in 1948 at the Sidney Janis Gallery. Then in 1949 she was instrumental in organizing East Hampton’s first contemporary art exhibit at Guild Hall. Reviews of her artwork from The New York Times and other newspapers, described her work as being “a dramatic compound of Byzantine color, allegro fancy, modern treatment, and near mystic feeling.”

Her work was mostly surrealist up until the 1950’s when she started doing some abstract expressionism, something quite popular at that time. Lucia was invited to participate in two of the four historic exhibitions that Alfonso Ossorio organised at Signa Gallery in 1957 and 1959. Then in 1961, she had a solo exhibition at Lefebre Gallery on East 77th Street in Manhattan.

By 1972 she had gone blind but continued to work, substituting ink for oils and allowing her mind to guide her, free of distractions. Lucia Wilcox died in New York in 1974.

These are some of her works. I find them interesting. What about you?