Aaron Siskind
1903–1991

Introduction

Aaron Siskind (December 4, 1903 – February 8, 1991) was an American photographer whose work focuses on the details of things, presented as flat surfaces to create a new image independent of the original subject. He was closely involved with, if not a part of, the abstract expressionist movement, and was close friends with painters Franz Kline (whose own breakthrough show at the Charles Egan Gallery occurred in the same period as Siskind's one-man shows at the same gallery), Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning.

Wikidata identifier

Q302714

View the full Wikipedia entry

Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed November 22, 2024.

Introduction

Born 4 December 1903; died 8 February 1991. Siskind took his first photographs while on vacation in Bermuda in 1930. In 1932 Siskind worked as a freelance photographer. In 1935 Siskind photographed the Harlem district of New York City, New York for the "Harlem Document". From 1951 to 1959 Siskind served as a professor of photography at Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1959 he became director of the photography department, a position he held until 1970. Siskind was a founding member of the Society for Photographic Education in 1963. In 1981 Siskind photographed in Peru.

Country of birth

United States

Roles

Artist, photographer, teacher

ULAN identifier

500024299

Names

Aaron Siskind

View the full Getty record

Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed November 22, 2024.



On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.