Sonja Sekula  Sonja Sekula (8 April 1918 – 25 April 1963) (also known as Sonia Sekula) was a Swiss-born artist linked with the abstract expressionist movement, notable for her activity as an "out" lesbian in the New York art world during the 1940s and early 1950s. She was born in Lucerne on 8 April 1918 to a Swiss mother, Berta Huguenin (1896–1980), and a Hungarian father, Béla Sekula (1881–1966), a philatelist. She lived in America from 1936 to 1955. She attended Sarah Lawrence College. She met the surrealists in exile in New York during 1942. On 25 April 1963 she hanged herself in her studio in Zurich after many years of mental health issues. She is buried in St. Moritz as she had requested in a letter to her mother. Sekula and her family relocated to New York from Lucerne, Switzerland when she was a child. She lived in New York, New Mexico, Mexico, and in different cities in Europe. Sekula moved to New York in 1941. In a letter sent to her mother, Sonja described New York as "very gray. All the steel constructions are waking up and their steel shines towards new work." In New York she befriended American poet Carl Sandburg and met the surrealists in exile during 1942. It was during this time that she became part of an international circle of artists, writers, choreographers, and composers in New York in the 1940s, when she was in her early twenties. She attended the Art Students League in New York in the modernist classes of Morris Kantor. In New York she befriended American poet Carl Sandburg and met the surrealists in exile during 1942. It was during this time that she became part of an international circle of artists, writers, choreographers, and composers in New York in the 1940s, when she was in her early twenties. Peggy Guggenheim included Sekula in the 1943 exhibition "31 Women" at her Art of This Century gallery, and gave her a solo exhibition in 1946. Betty Parsons Gallery exhibited Sekula's work in 1948. Sekula returned to Switzerland with her family in 1955 and remained there for the rest of her life. Despite her she struggle with mental health problems, in 1955 Sekula had a solo exhibition at Galerie Palette, Zurich. Sonja was extremely passionate about her artwork, expressing how proud she was to be around all the other artists and movements in New York during the 1940s.