Arthur Siegel
American, 1913-1978
In Search of Myself
INV-2250
Arthur Siegel
American, 1913-19781950s
In Search of Myself
Arthur Siegel American, 1913-1978 →photographphotography
Date
1950s
Medium
Dye transfer print
Dimensions
Image: 25.5 × 17.2 cm (10 1/16 × 6 13/16 in.); Mount: 38.1 × 30.5 cm (15 × 12 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Irene Siegel in honor of Liz Siegel and Kate Bussard
Arthur Siegel was central to the photographic scene of mid-20th-century Chicago and had a lengthy engagement with the city’s innovative Institute of Design, first as a student and later as a professor. Combining avant-garde experimentalism with documentary practice, Siegel exhibited his photographs in fine-art venues while maintaining a career in commercial photography and photojournalism. In 1951, shortly after undergoing Freudian analysis, he began the series In Search of Myself, which depicted shoppers on State Street in an effort to explore the complex relationship between identity and consumerism. Employing multiple exposures and taking advantage of the repeated reflections in shop windows, Siegel blended shoppers, commodities, and the streets in a dizzying urban bustle.
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