Lee Sievan Explained

Lee Sievan
Birth Name:Lina Gertrude Culik
Birth Place:New York City
Death Place:New York City

Lee Sievan (1907–1990) was an American photographer. Initially self-taught as a photographer, she later took classes at the New School for Social Research and the American Artists School. Sievan was a member of the New York Photo League.[1]

Early life and education

Sievan was born in 1907 to Polish immigrants, and grew up in New York City on the Lower East Side neighborhood. She attended Hunter College, graduating in 1929. She then attended Hunter Teachers College where she concentrated her studies in physics and mathematics.[2]

In 1938, she attended her first photography course with Eliot Elisofon at the American Artists School. Following that, at the New School for Social Research where she worked with Berenice Abbott, and became Weegee's part-time darkroom assistant.

Work

Sievan supported her husband, Maurice Sievan, a painter, for over four decades starting in 1934, by working at Hunter College biological sciences department. She went on in 1978 to take a job at the International Center of Photography, as an archivist and librarian.

Collections

Her work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[3] the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[4] the National Portrait Gallery, Washington[5] and the International Center of Photography,[6]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Kassow . Samuel D. . Roskies . David G. . The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 9 . 24 November 2020 . Yale University Press . 978-0-300-18853-0 . en.
  2. Web site: Lee Sievan American, 1907-1990 . Jewish Museum . 29 March 2024.
  3. Web site: Lee Sievan Smithsonian American Art Museum . americanart.si.edu.
  4. Web site: Downtown Manhattan with R . www.metmuseum.org.
  5. Web site: Maurice Sievan graphic / Lee Sievan, photographer, undated . npg.si.edu . en.
  6. Web site: Lee Sievan . International Center of Photography . en . 9 April 2020.