Creative Lives: New York Paintings and Photographs

The cityscape paintings and documentary photographs of Maurice and Lee Sievan rank among the best representations of New York City at mid-century. Although skyscrapers, subway and el infrastructures, and the visible effects of the Great Depression were dramatically altering the face of the city, the Sievans chose not to depict the city as a world-class curiosity. Instead, his paintings and her photographs conveyed a passion for lesser-known neighborhoods and ordinary New Yorkers going about day-to-day activities. Maurice's lyrical scenes of working-class housing, parked cars, and unremarkable shopping areas in the outlying borough of then-suburban Queens are memorable for their painterly brushwork and moody atmosphere. Lee's photographs of horse-drawn vehicles, trolleys, street urchins, and pedestrians stand out as an illuminated portrait of everyday Manhattan life. This catalog, with its generous selection of color and duotone plates, examines their two careers, which spanned the 30s through the 60s. It also offers a new example of the dynamics of husband-wife artist relationships in the fine tradition of Stieglitz-O'Keeffe and Pollock-Krasner.