Lucia Wilcox, 1930. Photo: Florence Henri
Lucia Wilcox rubbed shoulders with Surrealists in Paris, reinvented herself in New York, and created fantastical scenes of jubilant women. A new show brings her visionary work back into view.
The artist Lucia Wilcox lived an extraordinary life with the trappings of great cinema, but hardly anyone has ever heard of her.
She was born in 1899 and raised in Beirut, and at the age of 22 she moved to Paris, where she partied with Surrealists. In 1938, with the winds of war in the air, she fled to the U.S, arriving in New York. She bought a house in the Hamptons, where she situated herself, becoming a doyenne among a generation of expatriate Surrealist artists fleeing Europe. She married three times. Throughout her life, she painted mythical women in moments of unbridled happiness. These paintings were shown by the great art dealers of the generation: Sidney Janis and Leo Castelli.
As an artist, she was known simply as “Lucia” (a choice likely prompted by her three marriages). In the 50 years since the artist’s death in 1974, she has nearly faded into complete obscurity. But right now, in New York, Lucia is getting a fresh reintroduction with “Lucia Wilcox: LUCIA” on view at Berry Campbell (through June 28).
The tightly curated exhibition is a glimpse into the fantastical, joyful, and colorful artistic world of the forgotten artist Lucia, centering on just over 20 works made in the 1940s, soon after her arrival in America—in later years, she turned to abstraction, but those works will anchor a future show. Vivid greens, purples, and blues give vibrancy to scenes of angelic, bare-breasted women, acrobats, bicycles, tigers, and even mermaids.
— Katie White, Artnet News
June 20, 2025
