Agathe Sorel
{{short description|Hungarian sculptor and painter (born 1935)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Agathe Sorel (born 1935, Budapest){{Cite web|url=https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/agathe-sorel-retrospective-london-print-works-sculpture|title=Agathe Sorel interview: 'I never have an idea in advance, even now. Experimentation spreads through all my work'|last=McNay|first=Anna|website=Studio International - Visual Arts, Design and Architecture|language=en-gb|access-date=2020-03-06}} is a London-based artist of Hungarian descent, specializing in painting, sculpture, printmaking and livres d’artiste.{{Cite web|url=https://www.royalwatercoloursociety.co.uk/artists/102-agathe-sorel/biography/|title=Agathe Sorel biography|website=Royal Watercolour Society|language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}} She is a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, as well as a founding member of the Printmakers Council and was its Chairman in 1981-1983.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/inspiration/artist_agathe_sorel.shtml|title=BBC - Radio 4 - Radio and the Artist - Agathe Sorel|website=www.bbc.co.uk|access-date=2020-03-06}} She was one of the first artists who experimented with making objects and sculptures using print techniques.{{Cite book|last=Tala|first=Alexia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Mm_Qiww6w4C|title=Installations and Experimental Printmaking|date=2009-03-30|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-7136-8807-8|location=|pages=20|language=en}}
Life
Agathe Sorel was born in 1935 in Budapest.{{Cite web|url=https://wsimag.com/art/11372-agathe-sorel-a-retrospective|title=Agathe Sorel. A Retrospective|date=2014-09-25|website=Wall Street International|language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}} She studied at the Academy of Applied Arts and Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. In 1956, she left Hungary with her mother because of the anti-Soviet revolution and settled in England. The same year she enrolled at the Camberwell School of Art in London. At Camberwell she spent about a year and a half and met many interesting artists there, including Michael Rothenstein, Robert Medley, R.B. Kitaj, Heinz Inlander, Julian Trevelyan, and Anthony Gross. In 1958 Sorel won Gulbenkian Scholarship and moved to Paris for two years to study at the Ecoles des Beaux Arts, the Sorbonne and etching under Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17.{{cite book|editor= W.M Schwab|publisher= Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd / Ben Uri Art Society|year=1987|title=Jewish Artists The Ben Uri Collection |isbn=0-85331-537-X}}
Career
After returning to London in 1960, Sorel set up her own studio in Fulham with her husband, painter and designer Gabor Sitkey, and began teaching at Camberwell and Maidstone Colleges.{{Cite web|url=http://heritage.southwark.gov.uk/people/721/agathe-sorel-rws-re;jsessionid=098CDA89A53D4BE508364083556BF07A|title=Agathe Sorel RWS, RE – People – Southwark Heritage|website=heritage.southwark.gov.uk|access-date=2020-03-06}} In 1965, she became a founding member of the Printmaker’s Council. The following year, in 1966, Sorel won a Churchill fellowship to travel to the United States and Mexico for two years. After that, she became interested in working with transparent materials and the use of Perspex allowed her to combine line engraving properties with 3D forms. Most of her sculpture is engineered Perspex with both hand and machine engraving.
In 1981-1983 Sorel chaired the Printmaker’s Council.
In collaboration with the poet David Gascoyne Sorel made an artist book The Book of Sand published in 2001.{{Cite book|last1=Sorel|first1=Agathe|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/500127413|title=The book of sand = Le livre du sable|last2=Gascoyne|first2=David|last3=Studio of Contemporary Art|date=2001|publisher=Studio of Contemporary Art|location=London|oclc=500127413}} The book was a mixture of poetry and printed drawings.
Her work was featured in several exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including the Bankside Gallery.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Agathe-Sorel/BD7D056BFCA8D41A|title=Agathe Sorel {{!}} Art Auction Results|website=www.mutualart.com|language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}}
Exhibitions (selection)
- 1965 – Solo show at Curwen Gallery, London
- 1967 – Exhibition at the Ben Uri Gallery, London
- 1967 - Arleigh Gallery, San Francisco
- 1968 – Solo show at Philadelphia Print Club{{Cite web|last=Dunlap|first=Katherine|date=20 July 1968|title=Museum Adds New Art|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/182102534/?terms=Agatha%20Sorel&match=1|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-15|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer at Newspapers.com|page=19|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515133701/http://www.newspapers.com/image/182102534/?terms=Agatha%20Sorel&match=1 |archive-date=2021-05-15 }}
- 1974 – Line in Space by Agathe Sorel, Camden Arts Centre
- 1975 – Solo show at Oxford University Press
- 1978 – Solo show at Robertson Galleries, Ottawa{{Cite web|last=Walker|first=Kathleen|date=22 April 1978|title=Sorel's Strength Lies in her Lines|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/460392174/?terms=Agathe%20Sorel&match=2|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-15|website=The Ottawa Citizen at Newspapers.com|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515132033/http://www.newspapers.com/image/460392174/?terms=Agathe%20Sorel&match=2 |archive-date=2021-05-15 }}
- 1980 – Solo show at the Comsky Gallery, Los Angeles
- 1989 – Space Engravings & other works by Agathe Sorel, Herbert Read Gallery, Kent Institute of Art & Design
- 1992 – Malargalleriet, Stockholm,
- 1995 – Stadtische Galerie, Filderstadt, Stuttgart
- 2000/2002 – Solo shows at Galerie La Hune, Paris
- 2002 – Catalana Blanca, Bankside Gallery, London
- 2003 – The Book of Sand, Bankside Gallery, London
- 2004 – Retrospective Bradford Museum Cartwright Hall
- 2005 – Livres d’artiste at the Bradford Museum Cartwright Hall
- 2006 – Solo exhibition at Lawrence Graham LLP London
- 2009 – Solo exhibition at the Nehru Centre, London
- 2012 – Solo exhibition at the Bradford Museum, Cartwright Hall
- 2014 – Retrospective exhibition at Studio of Contemporary Art, London{{Cite web|title='A retrospective exhibition of Agathe Sorel' at the Studio of Contemporary Art, 11th October 2014|url=http://www.londoncitynights.com/2014/10/a-retrospective-exhibition-of-agathe.html|access-date=2021-05-15}}
Collections (selection)
- The Tate Gallery, London{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/agathe-sorel-1963|title=Agathe Sorel born 1935|last=Tate|website=Tate|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London{{Cite web|url=http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O697724|title=Troubled Square {{!}} Sorel, Agatha {{!}} V&A Search the Collections|date=2020-03-06|website=V and A Collections|language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- British Museum, London{{Cite web|url=https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?people=106977&peoA=106977-2-60|title=Collections Online, Agathe Sorel|last=|first=|date=|website=British Museum|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- British Council, London{{Cite web|url=http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/sorel-agathe-1935|title=Agathe Sorel {{!}} Artists {{!}} Collection {{!}} British Council − Visual Arts|website=visualarts.britishcouncil.org|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- Museum of Fine Art, Philadelphia{{Cite web|url=https://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/244168.html|title=Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections Object : The Queen|website=www.philamuseum.org|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- Boston Museum of Fine Art{{Cite web|url=https://collections.mfa.org/objects/170818/starlet;jsessionid=1DFD6394A976AB2119D02FA669DC71B5|title=Starlet|website=collections.mfa.org|language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, MA{{Cite web|url=https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/person/33077|title=Harvard Art Museums|last=Harvard|website=www.harvardartmuseums.org|language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- Art Institute of Chicago{{Cite web|url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/24515/agathe-sorel|title=Agathe Sorel|website=The Art Institute of Chicago|language=en|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, Colorado State University{{Cite web|url=http://uamcollection.libarts.colostate.edu/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios=%2272%22%20and%20Disp_Maker_1=%22Agathe%20Sorel%22|title=Gregory Allicar Museum of Art - Everyday Irreality|website=uamcollection.libarts.colostate.edu|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje{{Cite web|url=https://msu.mk/?artwork-artists=sorel-agathe|title=Sorel Agathe|website=MoCA Skopje|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-06}}
- National Library, Paris{{Cite book|url=https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb404488066|title=[Recueil. Documentation sur Agathe Sorel]}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.agathesorel.co.uk/ Official webpage]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorel, Agathe}}
Category:20th-century Hungarian women artists
Category:21st-century Hungarian women artists
Category:Artists from Budapest
Category:English women artists
Category:Hungarian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Category:20th-century English women
Category:20th-century English people