Agatha Wojciechowsky (1896 -1986) was recognized during her lifetime as a Surrealist. Although not following an art movement, her work reflected the sentiment of Art Informel of the 1950's. She had solo exhibitions from the 1960's to the present in New York, Cologne, Berlin, and Hamburg. Group exhibitions included shows with Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Dubuffet, Isamu Noguchi, Francis Picabia, Romare Bearden. Her artwork can be found in numerous public collections including Museum of Modern Art, the Prado, the Menil Collection, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Museum.
Agatha lived her earlier years in Steinach de Saale, and then sailed to the United States in 1923 to be a German-speaking governess in a German baron's household. She married, became a US citizen and moved to New York City. A well-known Spiritualist medium, Agatha traveled internationally as a healer.
In the early 1950's, without any background or training in the arts, Agatha began drawing. First, letters and automatic writing appeared, and then abstract drawings and faces.
This is the work of different entities who take over and step into my body, directing my hand. I really have nothing to do with it.
Agatha Wojciechowsky, along with many other artists of the post war era, was reaching for something timeless, in the spiritual realm. Her work is the expression of that quest.
Video of talk: The Medium Speaks: The History and Practice of Spiritualism and Spirit Art with panelists Susan Aberth, Frank Andrews and Terry Iacuzzo.
Moderated by Aurélie Bernard Wortsman
Wednesday, October 6th, 2021
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Agatha Wojciechowsky: Spirits Among Us, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2015
Agatha Wojciechowsky, Warum ich meine Hände nicht ruhig halten kann, Delmes & Zander, Cologne, DE
2007
Galerie Suzanne Zander, Cologne, DE
2001
Galerie Suzanne Zander, Cologne, DE
1980
Agatha Wojciechowsky, Ramapo College Gallery, Mahwah, NJ
1978
Agatha Wojciechowsky, Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, DE
1972
J. Walter Thompson Gallery, New York, NY
1966
Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne Galerie Springer, Berlin, DE
Galerie Neuendorf, Hamburg, DE
1963
Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Psychedelic Landscape, Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, NY
2021
Supernatural American: The Paranormal in American Art, curated by Robert Cozzolino, Toledo Musuem of Art, OH, Speed Museum, KY and Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
2019
The Electric Eye, La Casa Encendida de fundacion montemadrid, Madrid, Spain
The Medium’s Medium, Frieze, The Gallery of Everything, London, UK
Memory Palaces: Inside the Collection of Audrey B. Heckler, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
2018
Duende: Artists Translating Spirits, Calvin Morris Gallery, New York, NY
Vestiges & Verse: Notes from the Newfangled Epic, American Folk Art Musuem, New York, NY
2016
The Secret Staircase, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
Measurably Long Kool, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Ghost in the Machine, LIFE ON MARS Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Spaced, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY
2015
Jolie Laide, Life on Mars Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
System and Vision, David Zwirner, New York, NY
2014
Do the Write Thing: Read Between The Lines, Christian Berst Art Brut, New York, NY
PURPLE STATES & Cafe Dancer Pop-Up, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2012
Drawing Parallels, Cavin-Morris, New York, NY
2011
Chris Hipkiss and Agatha Wojciechowsky, KW69 #6, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE
The Keno Twins 4 - Villa Merkel & Bahnwärterhaus, Esslingen, DE
John Zorn presents The Obsessive Collective, Cavin-Morris, New York, NY
The Keno Twins 5 - Associazione Barriera, Turin, Italy
2008
The Message –Art and Occultism, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Cologne, DE
2007
Cavin-Morris, New York, NY
2006
Drawing the Astral Body, Cavin-Morris, New York, NY
2005
Outsider Art, Tate Britain, London, UK
Kunst von Medien, Galerie Susanne Zander, Cologne, DE
2004
American Art Brut, Cavin-Morris, New York, NY
2003
The Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art, Chicago, IL
2002
Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, UK
True Mediums, Cavin-Morris, New York, NY
J Crist Gallery, Boise, ID
1998
Art Unsolved, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
1997
Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY
1995
Artist’s Choice: Elizabeth Murray, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1994
Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY
1977
Le message automatique, Petersen Galerie, Berlin, DE
1969
Neue Kunst USA Barock - Minima, Das Modern Art Museum, Munich, DE
1966
Soloists, Cordier and Ekstrom, New York, NY
1964
Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, New York, NY
University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX
The Landscape, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Art Institute of Chicago, IL
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, CH
Museum Charlotte Zander, Bonnigheim, DE
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
The Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
Contemporary Art Collection, Atlanta University, GA
Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ
Universal Spiritualist Association, Camp Chesterfield, IN
Weatherspoon Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Larry Aldrich
Mrs. Douglas Auchincloss
Alfred H. Beard
Peter H. Beard
Charles Benenson
Mr. & Mrs. Robert M. Benjamin
Dr. Detlev W. Bronk
Richard Brown-Baker
Mrs. Robert Dowling
Jean Dubuffet
Marcel Duchamp
Panos Gratsos
Wilder Green
Audrey Heckler
Rudolf König
Richard Lindner
Mr. & Mrs. Jean de Menil
Dorothy Miller
Richard Miller
Alfonso Ossorio
Bernard Pfriem
Chancey L. Waddell