An artist whose life and work were deeply interwoven with the fabric of twentieth-century art is set to be celebrated in an upcoming exhibition. Lucia Wilcox, known professionally as Lucia, was a significant figure who moved between the vibrant art scenes of Paris and New York, eventually settling in East Hampton. Her unique artistic journey, which began with a childhood in Beirut, saw her become a crucial link between European émigré artists and the burgeoning American Abstract Expressionist movement.
Berry Campbell Gallery has announced its first exhibition dedicated to Wilcox’s oeuvre, focusing on a particularly dynamic period of her career. The showcase will highlight her vividly colored and wildly imaginative Surrealist works created between 1943 and 1948. During this time, Lucia carved out a distinct niche within Surrealism, an art movement often dominated by male perspectives. Her compositions, drawing from Fauvism, Primitivism, and Symbolism, were notable for their joyous celebration of life, freedom, and sensual pleasure.
Lucia frequently employed the female nude, alongside bold color and fluid lines, to construct realms of uninhibited sensuality. While inspired by masters like Henri Matisse, she cleverly subverted traditional depictions of women – often portrayed by male artists as ethereal beings or mere objects of desire – transforming them into powerful affirmations of female freedom and pleasure. These “fantasyscapes” presented an understated feminist challenge to a Surrealist ethos that sometimes saw women as muses for visions tinged with eroticism and hallucination. Lucia, like other women artists associated with Surrealism such as Dorothea Tanning and Leonora Carrington, found her voice in the movement during the 1940s, using it to explore magical fantasy and narrative.
Her work, though often possessing a dreamlike lyricism reminiscent of Marc Chagall, expressed an exuberant zest for life in the present moment. “Painting is your own reflection,” Lucia once stated. “It is a handwriting, a personal speech. I paint because I have to paint and this is my only way of writing poetry.” This philosophy is evident in pieces like Jungle Path, where tiger-like creatures and human faces emerge from a dense tropical landscape, inviting viewers into a mystical space where boundaries dissolve, symbolically rejecting hierarchical structures.
Freedom was an overarching theme in Lucia’s art, expressed through immediacy, change, and movement. She skillfully merged figurative and decorative elements, blending Eastern traditions, influenced by the Islamic and Byzantine art of her youth, with Western aesthetics and her background in textile design. Her wartime works reflected not only her own flight from Europe but also a broader meditation on humanity’s resilience against oppression.
Later in her career, in the 1950s, Lucia embraced Abstract Expressionism, influenced by her friendships with artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Even after experiencing sudden near-total blindness, her resilient spirit led her to adapt her practice, working in ink with a newfound clarity, free from distraction.
Lucia’s East Hampton home, shared with her third husband, artist and inventor Roger Wilcox, became a renowned gathering place for artists, celebrated for its salon-like atmosphere and her exceptional culinary skills, which fused Lebanese and Parisian cuisines. Her life was marked by solo exhibitions at prestigious venues such as the Sidney Janis Gallery and the Leo Castelli Gallery.
The upcoming exhibition at Berry Campbell Gallery, titled “LUCIA WILCOX: LUCIA,” marks the gallery’s representation of the Lucia Wilcox Estate and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
The exhibition is scheduled to open on May 22, 2025, and will continue through June 28, 2025. A reception will be held on Thursday, May 29, 2025, from 6 to 8 p.m. This announcement was made on May 7, 2025.
