Untitled

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Artist/Maker Arthur S. Siegel (American, 1913 - 1978)

Date1965

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 14 1/16 × 17 in. (35.7 × 43.2 cm) Sheet: 14 1/16 × 17 in. (35.7 × 43.2 cm)

Credit LineGift of David Tennenbaum, Class of 1978

Object number2000.5.1

Not on view

DescriptionPhotograms are “cameraless” photographs made by placing an object or objects on photosensitive paper and then exposing the ensemble to light; the parts of the sheet not covered by objects become black, while the covered parts remain white or turn darker or lighter shades of gray depending on the translucency of the objects that cover them. Famously, Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy both made photograms in the 1920s, in Paris and at the Bauhaus in Germany, respectively, which Ray called “rayographs.” The American photographer Arthur S. Siegel also produced intricate examples, such as this untitled work, in which he placed a number of overlapping screens on a sheet of photographic paper and exposed it to create an abstract pattern. In the same year, he conducted experiments with the dye-transfer technique (printing color photographs with a separate dye-soaked matrix for each color in the additive spectrum—red, green, and blue); in addition, over the span of his career, he explored the possibilities of color film, combination printing, and backlighting and made photographs of nudes onto which he projected striking patterns of light and dark. Born in Detroit, Siegel was an active photographer even before he attended Wayne State University, graduating in 1936 and then briefly teaching photography there. In 1937, he continued his studies with Moholy-Nagy and György Kepes, another pioneer of experimental photography, at the New Bauhaus in Chicago (renamed the Institute of Design in 1944, then merged with the Illinois Institute of Technology). Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Siegel contributed images to a variety of periodicals, including Fortune, Life, and the New York Times. He taught at the Institute of Design from 1945 to 1949 and introduced an innovative course entitled “New Visions in Photography.” The school was a bastion of cutting-edge photography at a time when many staid institutions did not consider the medium to be on a par with the arts of painting and sculpture. In 1967, after working commercially for many years, Siegel returned to the Institute under the leadership of another important abstract photographer, Aaron Siskind. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

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Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 93, illus.).

Provenance 2000: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by gift of David Tennenbaum;
?: David Tennenbaum, by gift of Julie [Siegel] Tennenbaum;
?: Julie Siegel, presumably by gift or bequest of her father, the artist.

Markings None noted.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 208.

Signature Not signed.

Inscribed "[upward arrow] / UP" on verso at upper center in pencil; "11087" on verso at lower left in pencil.