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.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015
Agatha Wojciechowsky, Warum ich meine Hände nicht ruhig halten kann, Delmes & Zander, Cologne
2007
Galerie Suzanne Zander, Cologne
2001
Galerie Suzanne Zander, Cologne
1980
Agatha Wojciechowsky, Ramapo College Gallery, Mahwah, NJ
1978
Agatha Wojciechowsky, Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne
1972
J. Walter Thompson Gallery, New York
1966
Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, CologneGalerie Springer, Berlin
Galerie Neuendorf, Hamburg
1963
Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery, New York
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018
Vestiges & Verse: Notes from the Newfangled Epic, AFAM, New York, January 21 - May 27
2016
The Secret Staircase, Adams and Ollman, Portland, Oregon, July 15 - Aug 13
Measurably Long Kool, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, June 2 - Aug 26
Ghost in the Machine, LIFE ON MARS Gallery, Bushwick, New York
Spaced, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York
2015
Jolie Laide, Life on Mars Gallery, Bushwick, New York
System and Vision, David Zwirner, New York
2014
Do the Write Thing: Read Between The Lines, Christian Berst Art Brut, New York
PURPLE STATES & Cafe Dancer Pop-Up, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York
2012
Drawing Parallels, Cavin-Morris, New York
2011
Chris Hipkiss and Agatha Wojciechowsky, KW69 #6, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
The Keno Twins 4 - Villa Merkel & Bahnwärterhaus, Esslingen
John Zorn presents The Obsessive Collective, Cavin-Morris, New York
The Keno Twins 5 - Associazione Barriera, Turin
2008
The Message –Art and Occultism, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Cologne
2007
Cavin-Morris, New York
2006
Drawing the Astral Body, Cavin-Morris, New York
2005
Outsider Art, Tate Britain, London, 13 September 2005 – 2 January 2006
Kunst von Medien, Galerie Susanne Zander, Cologne.
2004
American Art Brut, Cavin-Morris, New York
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
J Crist Gallery, Boise, responsible for the estate for five years
1998
Art Unsolved, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
1997
Phyllis Kind, New York. Note: Phyllis Kind borrowed Agatha’s art from Cordier and Ekstrom for subsequent shows and fairs.
1995
Artist’s Choice: Elizabeth Murray, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1994
Phyllis Kind, New York
1977
Le message automatique, Petersen Galerie, Berlin
1969
Neue Kunst USA Barock - Minima, Das Modern Art Museum, Munich
1966
Soloists, Cordier and Ekstrom, New York
1964
Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, New York
University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX
The Landscape, School of Visual Arts, New York
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
The Art Institute of Chicago, IL
The Menil Collection
American Folk Art Museum
Museo del Prado
Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Museum Charlotte Zander, Bonnigheim, Germany
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
The Chase Manhattan Bank, New York
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
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
Mrs. Robert Dowling
Richard Brown-Baker
Jean Dubuffet
Marcel Duchamp
Panos Gratsos
Wilder Green
Rudolf König
Richard Lindner
Mr. & Mrs. Jean de Menil
Dorothy Miller
Richard Miller
Alfonso Ossorio
Bernard Pfriem
Chancey L. Waddell