In her heyday, the 1950s, Sonia Gechtoff was part of a cool clique in San Francisco that was starting to rival the big bad New York art scene.

Abstract expressionism was hot, but was a major boy’s club. With a few exceptions, most of her well-known contemporaries are men. I'd guess even after a lifetime of success, Gechtoff is not as well-known as the likes of Jackson Pollock or Clyfford Still. But not much was going to stop the ambitious artist from following her passion.

Perhaps this is because she was introduced to art at such a young age. Her quirkily named parents (Etya and Leonid) were prominent San Francisco art players. Mom owned the notable East-West Gallery. Dad enjoyed a stint as a fairly successful painter until the Depression struck, and an unstable art market plunged the family into financial hardship.

Despite having seen firsthand the struggle of the starving artist, Gechtoff decided to enter the family business. She got her first big break at age 25 when she was featured in the Guggenheims' 1954 “Young American Painters” show.

For the next few years, her career soared. But in 1961, at an Andy Warhol show in New York, she recognized impending misfortune--in the form of pop art. She recounts, “I looked at my husband and I said, you know what, this is the beginning of the end for people like us.” And she was right. Her aesthetic was on the way out, and Sonia's career never quite got its groove back after critics, galleries, and collectors moved on to the next big trend.