GERDA SUTTON (1923-2005)

Gerda Sutton was born in Bedford (UK) in 1923. She started painting in the early fifties and never stopped until her death in 2005 in Paris (France), leaving behind her an important collection of work, including more than 220 paintings in her study. The oldest of them recall her cubist years with her art teacher, André Lhote (during the fifties), and the most recent ones evoke a more engaged work (like Basquiat’s, or “street painting” typical of the nineties).

Evolving through periods of intense research (her interest in Otto Dix strongly influenced her portraits and Pop Art noticeably changed her painting from the seventies onwards), her work shows an authentic vividness of artistic inspiration, open to the more inventive currents of her time. In a way, her painting is emblematic of the second half of the 20th century.

Her paintings were sold during an auction studio sale (Salle Drouot, Paris) in January 2006. They were bought mostly by collectors and galleries, but also by amateurs who came over especially from the UK and the United States for the occasion.

Though she belonged now and again to various groups of artists, Gerda Sutton was a solitary, independent woman who refused all her life to be represented by an art-gallery (in spite of numerous propositions). As she also refused interviews (and tended to give away her paintings instead of selling them, destroying those she was not pleased with any more), there remain many gaps in her biography.

This site doesn’t look to be exhaustive : the 35 paintings showed here belong to a private collection and can only give a glimpse of her general work. It’s an open site, which will hopefully help to get to know this talented artist a little better (like in a “virtual exhibition”) and answer a few questions concerning her. Hence the interest of an interactive site.

So any more information concerning her career, work or exhibitions by those who knew her or worked with her are welcome (see “contact” at the end of the site).