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Judy Seigel

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Judy Seigel (1930–2017) was an American "...illustrator for an advertising firm, a painter, a photographer, a writer, an editor, and a feminist activist" in New York City.[1]

Judy Seigel
Born
Judith Lee Aronson

July 20, 1930
New York City, US
DiedMay 10, 2017(2017-05-10) (aged 86)
Education
  • BFA, Cooper Union,1954
  • Graduate studies in photography, Pratt Institute, 1980

A legend in alternative photographic processes, Seigel taught photography at the Pratt Institute for fourteen years.

Seigel was the founding editor both Women Artists News and The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography. She published two books: Mutiny and the Mainstream, and [Read My T-Shirt] for President... A True History of the Political Front - and Back, and provided illustrations for a third, Sight Lines.

Seigel was a passionate activist for the preservation of her neighborhood, Greenwich Village, as well as an advocate of women's art, and a prolific writer of letters to the editors of The New York Times, The Villager, and Newsday.

Early life and education edit

The daughter of Hortense and Gershon Aronson,[2] Judith Lee Aronson was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on July 20, 1930.[3] Her family moved to Scarsdale, where she graduated from high school in 1947.[4] She went to Northwestern University and the Art Institute of Chicago, and met Morton Seigel in 1947.[3] They married on December 25, 1951.[4]

Judy Seigel graduated from Cooper Union in 1954, with BFA retroactively bestowed in 1978, after the School of Art was accredited to offer degrees.[5][6]

Entering the world of New York advertising, Seigel became a graphic artist, working as a staff illustrator at a New York ad agency, then free-lancing children's books. Known for her experimental techniques, she earned places in three annual awards of the field: the Graphis Annual (The International Annual of Advertising and Editorial Graphics), the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition, and the Art Directors Club Award.[7]

From 1959 to the early 1965, the Seigels moved to  Switzerland while Morton earned a medical degree and, "To support the family — their children were born in Switzerland — Judy did freelance illustrations."[3] Publisher Cynthia Navaretta described Seigel's dissatisfaction with "carrying out other people's ideas, as well as the loss of quality in reproduction", and her commitment to make "art she deeply cared about".[7] In Europe, she began painting oil landscapes in impressionistic style. As soon as family finances allowed, on their return to the United States, Seigel was painting full time.[7]

After a Fauvism period painting cityscapes, Seigel began using acrylics in abstract and pattern-based ways. She viewed a 1968 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, "Photography into Printmaking", that demonstrated solarizing and infrared photography, with effects resembling some of her painting techniques. Ten years later, she became interested in photography to document the street literature appearing on T-shirts, shooting some 1,600 "T-shirts of 1978" images, which she printed in a basement darkroom originally set up by her son.[7]

Photography edit

In 1980, Seigel took graduate studies in photography at the Pratt Institute.[7] Called "a legend in the elucidation of the alternative process arts",[8] and "a leading expert in the field",[9] she taught photography at Pratt for fourteen years, 1980–1994.[10]

Seigel's sub-basement darkroom was one of four darkrooms described by Modern Photography in 1988: "Seigel's darkroom may look like a dungeon, but it does the job. Much of the furniture comes from fleamarkets and throw-aways. To accommodate the height of her Omega C23 enlarger, Seigel had a hole made in the ceiling."[11] Seigel's printing process was described as working down one wall, with trays beside the enlarger for different strengths of developer. An under-counter tray served as an emergency counter, and opposite the enlarger was a table with a glass surface and a light for solarizing.[11]

The Museum of Modern Art purchased a Seigel gelatin silver process print (toned), titled Pigeons, Village Square, 1980.[12] Seigel's print, Delacorte Fountain, East River (NYC), 1983–1991, is displayed on artnet.com.[13] More of here artwork is included in a posthumous tribute published on The Forward.[14]

Seigel's 1977 solo painting exhibit at the Ward Nasse Gallery and 1985 Metal and Paint photo show at the Port Washington Library drew favorable commentaries.[15][16][17][18][19]

Malcom Preston wrote that Seigel had used multiple techniques, including the Sabattier process, exposing a print to light during development: "...it is the solarization that compels our eye. And since the chemistry is not always able to be precisely predicted there are some fascinating accidental effects." He wrote that "painted additions — coupled with the often eerie certainly exciting colors that flee across the print surface with a marvelous iridescence — create some delicious visual pleasures". He concluded, "Seigel has the best of two worlds. There is the immediacy of the photographic image and the sensuousness of the painterly-like surface. These are unusual prints. See them!"[18]

Kathleen Paradiso wrote, "Judy Seigel's recent photos have a lyrical quality, salted with technique, and just a pinch of camp".[19] Paradiso described Seigel as, "hooked on darkroom experimentation, who took scrupulous notes, but could never quite control, or recreate, her discoveries", using beakers and a triple beam balance like a scientist.[19] Paradiso also mentioned a review of Metal and Paint by Natalie Canavor, who had written, "Here's proof that photography's recognized boundaries have expanded sufficiently to obviate further debate about 'is it or isn't it photography.' " Paradiso concluded, "Metal and Paint is something new."[19]

Writing, editing and publishing edit

Periodicals edit

Seigel was the founding editor of Women Artists Newsletter, which became Women Artists News (1975–1992).[20][21] Gwen Allen quoted Cynthia Navaretta: "The magazine functioned as 'an information exchange for artists' and 'a vehicle for artists to talk about art—[we] see ourselves as an advocate and voice for artists, and specifically women artists."[22] Allen wrote that Women Artists Newsletter published reviews covered topics "such as sexism in the art world, and balancing work and motherhood". The magazine had a circulation of 6,000 to 7,000, and 10,000 at one point.[22]

Seigel also founded, edited, and published The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography (1998–2004).[23][24] One reviewer wrote, "Post-Factory Photography is certainly the best underground do-it-yourself alternative-process photography magazine on the planet, containing no end of arcane information. The magazine quickly becomes an indispensable reference for anyone interested in alternative processes."[25] Another said, "As the factory-made materials of modern photography fade from view, hand-applied media, new and old, take the field. The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography brings you 48 pages of information, inspiration, and news about this world-wide movement, from facts and formulas to personalities and history."[26]

Sil Horowitz reported in the PSA Journal that The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography was a new periodical about "alternative photography", noting that soon all chemical-based media may become "alternative". He listed articles on "Gum Control - an Introduction," as well as "basic gum bichromate (excellently explained and illustrated), a comparison of Van Dyke brown formulas, a piece on 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Computer', which covers using a scanner instead of a camera, relevant book reviews, a comprehensive examination of 'Sense & Sensitometry,' and several pages listing sources of materials required for alternative photography."[27]

Selected articles edit

  1. Seigel, Judy (Spring 1973). "Women's Panels at the C.A.A." The Feminist Art Journal. 2 (2): 10–11, 14 – via JSTOR.
  2. Seigel, Judy (June 1986). "Let's play house?". Women Artists News. 11: 13–15 – via JSTOR.
  3. Seigel, Judy (Winter 1987). "Guest Editorial: Synthetic Color in Photography" (PDF). exposure. 25 (4): 5–6.
  4. Seigel, Judy (Fall 1987). "Beatrice Wood". Women Artists News. 12 (4/5): 9–11 – via JSTOR.
  5. Seigel, Judy (December 1991). "Dress for Duress". Women Artists News. 16/17: 74–74 – via EBSCO.
  6. Seigel, Judy (Spring 1993). "The Nipple Effect". Women Artists News Book Review. 18: 12–34 – via EBSCO.
  7. Seigel, Judy (Spring 1994). "Art and Psychoanalysis/the Cult of the Avant-Garde Artist". Women Artists News Book Review. 19: 3–36 – via EBSCO.

Books edit

1. Seigel, Judy (January 1, 1992). Mutiny and the Mainstream: Talk That Changed Art, 1975-199. Midmarch Arts Press. ISBN 978-1877675058.

It was described as a "way to get inside of artists' heads":

This book is just plain wonderful, with all the endearing cussedness of the mud-slinging love fest that is the New York art community. Sophistication, intelligence, pretense, honesty, ambition, elegance, paranoia, professionalism, humor, and anger all bubble along here in a great stew, the stock of which is devotion to art... Artist and photographer Judy Seigel, who assembled Mutiny, possesses not inconsiderable skills as a writer, along with independence of mind and willingness to speak it.

— Ann Lee Morgan[28]

2. Seigel, Judy (January 1, 2006). [Read My T-Shirt] for President... A True History of the Political Front - and Back. Front and Back Press. ISBN 978-1877675607.

[Read My T-Shirt] for President... A True History of the Political Front - and Back, consisted of photographs of "people in T-shirts with different texts, concentrating on political messages after taking part in the protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention".[10] The book returned to the subject that first interested her in photography nearly twenty years earlier– "the street literature" breaking out in slogans on T-shirts in the 1970s. The Villager review described it as, "a retrospective of political T-shirts and their significance in society", the T-shirts pictured in the book as ranging from, "witty to profound to obscene".[29]

3. Mandel, Charlotte (July 15, 1998). Sight Lines. Illustrated with black and white photographs by Judy Seigel. Midmarch Arts Press. ISBN 978-1877675270.

Activism edit

Art and feminism edit

Some of Seigel's activism took the form of letters to the editors of New York newspapers. For example, she disputed the claim that selling art on the streets was a constitutional matter. Seigel called it "schlock as free speech" and "the right to clog streets."[10][30][31]

Seigel wrote more than once about the obscenity of the ways women are portrayed:

  • She published an essay in Women Artist News critical of the University of Arizona's offering for sale some prints of nude photographs of women: "...It's hardly news that a large and lucrative market exists for material of this type. It is news when an institution of higher learning moves to cash in on it."[32]
  • She also sent letters to the editors of The Villager critical of Don Imus, who "..still thinks it's 'fun' and 'cool' to call women 'hos.' ...We can't necessarily blame Imus for being a moron, but we can blame his enablers, who are the real 'hos' ".[33]
  • She was critical of The New York Times article about a female professor's objection to Goya's Naked Maja being shown in the classroom: "...the professor's objection didn't involve simply the arousal of male fantasy, as Ms. Goldberg suggests, but the stereotype of woman as whore." Seigel wrote, "Throughout history, art has famously shown woman in two roles, saint or sinner, not only revealing but also creating a mind-set that affects us all... In the case of the Maja, whether or not the lady is a whore, she's naked female flesh on the wall, one of a long line of naked women in a culture in which, whatever movies show us, people in power still wear clothes".[34]

Seigel complained about a story on Senator D'Mato's opposition to Medicaid payments for abortions: "Tom Goldstein tucks Senator D'Amato's opposition to Medicaid payments for abortions for victims of rape and incest into a brief list of 'conservative positions'... No amount of good Senator D'Amato might do could compensate for the damage of forced child bearing, particularly, if one can imagine it, after rape or incest, particularly for those at the level of Medicaid eligibility."[35]

Community activism edit

The Villager reported that Seigel was "a passionate advocate for the preservation of Greenwich Village", whose "relentless neighborhood advocacy and artistic endeavors were chronicled in The Villager..."[10][36] Her letters to the editor also advocated waterfront preservation.[10][37] In 1992, Seigel wrote, "We in the Village failed to stop the Port Authority from breaking environmental protection laws and city codes when it erected two ventilation towers at the end of Morton Street. These structures were ill-conceived, badly engineered and unnecessary (as independent consultants proved, to the concern of no one in city government)."[38]

In 2004, Seigel led neighbors in protesting "and distributing pamphlets against what they believe is illegal commercial use of property... [which] she calls 'Hollywood on the Hudson' and said that the traffic, trailers, set lights, noise, cranes and parking issues associated with activity... cause a serious disruption to her and surrounding residents."[39] For ten years, Seigel documented the problems, "with a camera, writing letters, staging protests, appealing to the Morton Street Block Association and... speaking at a Community Board 2 meeting."[39] In 2009, Seigel and neighbors rallied to advocate keeping local post offices open.[40]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Rodgers, Josephine (March 13, 2018). "An Intaglio Interior | Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum". www.cooperhewitt.org. Archived from the original on March 14, 2024.
  2. ^ "New York, New York, U.S., Birth Index, 1910-1965 for Judith L Aronson, Births Reported in 1930 - Borough of Brooklyn". www.ancestry.com.
  3. ^ a b c Amateau, Albert (May 25, 2017). "Judy Seigel, 86, photographer, activist". The Villager. amNY. Archived from the original on March 14, 2024. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Marriage of Aronson / Seigel". The Reporter Dispatch. December 26, 1951. p. 9.
  5. ^ "In Memoriam: Judith Seigel A'54". Cooper Union Alumni Association. June 30, 2017. Archived from the original on March 14, 2024.
  6. ^ Mann, Mary (April 1, 2024). "The Cooper Union Library: The Cooper Union Archives & Special Collections: Cooperology". library.cooper.edu. Archived from the original on April 27, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d e Navaretta, Cynthia (March 1, 1995). Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (eds.). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century - A Biographical Dictionary. Taylor & Francis (published 1995). pp. 501–502. ISBN 978-0815325840.
  8. ^ James, Christopher (2002). The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes. Albany, New York: Delmar, a Division of Thompson Learning. p. 214. ISBN 0-7668-2077-7.
  9. ^ Anderson, Christina Z. (2013). Gum Printing and Other Amazing Contact Printing Processes. p. 122. ISBN 978-0984681617.
  10. ^ a b c d e Amateau, Albert (May 25, 2017). "Judy Seigel, 86, photographer, activist". The Villager. amNY. Archived from the original on March 14, 2024. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Callhoun, Cathering; Robb, Lisa (September 1988). "Darkrooms That Work". Modern Photography. 52 (9). New York: 36.
  12. ^ Seigel, Judy (1980). "Pigeons, Village Square". MOMA. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  13. ^ Seigel, Judy. "Delacorte Fountain, East River (NYC)". www.artnet.com. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  14. ^ Seigel, Jessica (May 25, 2017). "Could Judy Seigel Be The Next Posthumous Photo Phenom?". The Forward. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
  15. ^ Quindlen, Anna (April 22, 1977). "Metropolitan Baedeker". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 9, 2024. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  16. ^ Barry, Ann, ed. (April 17, 1977). "Arts and Leisure Guide". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 9, 2024. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  17. ^ Barry, Ann, ed. (June 15, 1975). "Arts and Leisure Guide". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 9, 2024. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  18. ^ a b Preston, Malcolm (June 22, 1985). "Art Review: The Process is the Message". Newsday (Nassau Edition). p. 49. Archived from the original on March 20, 2024. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  19. ^ a b c d Paradiso, Kathleen (Winter 1986). "Judy Seigel: Metal and Paint". Women Artists News. Vol. 11, no. 1. p. 24 – via JSTOR.
  20. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (June 12, 2020). "Cynthia Navaretta, Who Promoted Female Artists, Is Dead at 97". The New York Times.
  21. ^ Allen, Gwen (2011). Artists' Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 311. ISBN 978-0-262-52841-2.
  22. ^ a b Allen, Gwen (2011). Artists' Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art. MIT Press. p. 311. ISBN 978-0262528412.
  23. ^ "The World Journal of Post-Factory Photography". Alternative Photography. February 5, 2010. Archived from the original on October 2, 2023. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  24. ^ "Books for the Platinum/Palladium Printers and Alternative Process Fine Art Photographers". www.eepjon.com.
  25. ^ Buffaloe, Ed. "Post-Factory Photography". unblinkingeye.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  26. ^ Allen, Jodie (January 1, 2004). "'Alternative' Photography Comes of Age ... How-To and Y". Rocky Mountain Photographer's Forum. Archived from the original on January 1, 2004.
  27. ^ Horwitz, Sil (November 1998). "Tools for photographers". PSA Journal. 64 (11): 7 – via EBSCO.
  28. ^ Morgan, Ann Lee (Fall 1994). "Art Since the 1940's". Art Journal. 53 (3): 98, 100. doi:10.2307/777447. JSTOR 777447 – via JSTOR.
  29. ^ Edwards, Kristin (February 20, 2007). "Political shirts fit photographer to a T in new book". The Villager. amNY. Archived from the original on March 13, 2024. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  30. ^ Seigel, Judy (May 15, 2008). "Letters to the Editor: Tchotchkes aren't speech". The Villager. amNY. Archived from the original on April 27, 2024.
  31. ^ Seigel, Judy (June 3, 2008). "Letters to the Editor: The 'right' to clog streets? Re: "Courts on art vendors"". The Villager. Archived from the original on April 9, 2024. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  32. ^ Seigel, Judy (Fall 1990). "Profoundly offensive stereotypes in photography". Women Artist News. 15 (3): 33. ISSN 0149-7081 – via JSTOR.
  33. ^ Seigel, Judy (April 24, 2007). "Letters to the editor: Rap and Imus's real hos". The Villager. amNY. Archived from the original on April 9, 2024. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  34. ^ Seigel, Judy (November 19, 1995). "X-RATED CULTURE; Women as Saints And Sinners". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  35. ^ Seigel, Judy (March 20, 1983). "Senator D'Amato's opposition to Medicaid payments for abortions". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  36. ^ Seigel, Judy (September 6, 2005). "Letters to the editor:Flat park will feel smaller". TheVillager. amNy. Archived from the original on April 27, 2024. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
  37. ^ Seigel, Judy (October 7, 2008). "Letters to the Editor: "Poor tax"? That's a joke". The Villager. amNY. Archived from the original on April 27, 2024. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
  38. ^ "City Agencies Get Theirs". Newsday. March 22, 1992. p. 37. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  39. ^ a b Reardon, Nancy (October 12, 2004). "Neighbors disagree whether building is a problem". The Villager. amNY. Archived from the original on April 9, 2024. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
  40. ^ Allyn, Bobby (August 20, 2009). "A Rally to Keep 14 Post Offices in Business". City Room. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
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