Arthur Siegel

American, 1913—1978

About

Arthur Siegel

American, 1913—1978


Arthur Siegel was invited by László Moholy-Nagy to study at the New Bauhaus after Moholy reviewed his portfolio in Detroit while on a lecture tour. Siegel enrolled in Kepes’s first class in 1938; this began his long relationship with the school. At Moholy’s invitation in 1946, Siegel returned to the school, now reconstituted as the Institute of Design, to teach and create a new four-year college level program in photography with Harry Callahan. Although he was primarily a camera artist, Siegel assisted in processing several photograms Moholy would make in 1946 during the last year of his life. Siegel’s own photograms, mostly dated 1946, unveil a complex kinetic play of light, revealing many moving shapes advancing and receding, suspended in an unrestricted space.