Object Details
- Creator
- Gechtoff, Sonia, 1926-2018
- Occupation
- Painters -- California -- San Francisco
- Painters -- New York (State) -- New York
- Topic
- Abstract expressionism
- Women artists
- Women painters
- Provenance
- Sonia Gechtoff donated her papers to the Archives of American Art in 1980.
- Creator
- Gechtoff, Sonia, 1926-2018
- See more items in
- Sonia Gechtoff papers
- Sponsor
- Processing of this collection received federal support from the Collections Care Initiative Fund, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative and the National Collections Program
- Summary
- The papers of abstract expressionist painter Sonia Gechtoff measure 0.4 linear feet and date from 1950 to 1980. The scattered papers include artwork, biographical material, correspondence, personal business records, photographs, printed material, and writings by Gechtoff.
- Biographical / Historical
- Sonia Gechtoff (1926-2018) was a painter and printmaker active in San Francisco, California, and New York City, New York. Gechtoff was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in San Francisco, California. Her parents, Ethel (Etya) and Leonid Gechtoff, were active in the art industry--her mother ran art galleries and her father was a successful painter. Gechtoff studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and, after graduation, moved to San Francisco where she became acquainted with Beat culture and continued her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. Over the course of her career her style moved toward abstract expressionism. Her works were included at the Guggenheim Museum's Younger American Painters in 1954. Gechtoff married artist Jim Kelly and together they moved to New York City in the late 1950s, where she continued to paint and was active in the New York art world. Additionally, Gechtoff taught at various institutions later in her career. With Kelly, Sonia Gechtoff had two children, Susannah and Miles. She died in 2018 in New York City.
- Extent
- 0.4 Linear feet
- Date
- 1950-1980
- Archival Repository
- Archives of American Art
- Identifier
- AAA.gechsoni
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Citation
- Sonia Gechtoff papers, 1950-1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Arrangement
- Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
- Processing Information
- The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2020.
- Rights
- The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information
- Scope and Contents
- The papers of abstract expressionist painter Sonia Gechtoff measure 0.4 linear feet and date from 1950 to 1980. The scattered papers include artwork, biographical material, correspondence, personal business records, photographs, printed material, and writings by Gechtoff.
- Restrictions
- This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
- Record ID
- ebl-1596207663772-1596207663774-0
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