Hollis Sigler
Encyclopedia
Hollis Sigler was a Chicago-based artist whose paintings addressed her life with breast cancer. She died of the disease in 2001, at the age of 53. She received degrees from both Moore College of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her mature artistic style was faux-naïve
, featuring paintings whose subjects, furniture and clothing set in doll-house type interiors and suburban landscapes, were stand-ins for the implicitly female figure. She was an openly lesbian artist and a prominent member of the faculty of Columbia College
in Chicago. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985, Sigler’s themes became more personal, confronting ideas about body image, heredity, illness, mortality and hope.
She had early success with a series of photo realist paintings that depicted underwater swimmers but by 1976, in a gesture meant to repudiate what she considered a male-dominated style, she abandoned realism
entirely in favor of a faux-naïve approach. Her subject matter, presented in a way that suggested the work of an untutored or naïve
artist, focused on a woman’s world-view. A tendency toward autobiographical content was evident even at the early stages of what would become her signature style. According to the gallery owner Steven Scott, Sigler portrayed
Scott also observed that beneath the bright colors and expressionistic strokes of the artist's paintings was Sigler's examination of her fears and feelings of inadequacy, and the anger and hurt she felt in her relationships with her parents and lovers. Her paintings often compensated for these feelings with themes of escape and the fulfilment of desire.
ran in Sigler’s family; her great-grandmother, Sarah Anna Truitt Ryan, died of the disease and Sigler’s mother, diagnosed with breast cancer in 1983, succumbed to it in April 1995. Sigler received a diagnosis of breast cancer in August 1985. The artist underwent a mastectomy
and chemotherapy
, but by 1993 the cancer had spread to her bones, pelvis and spine.
Among the first art works dealing with her illness that Sigler produced after her cancer diagnosis was a series of five vitreograph
prints. Produced in the fall of 1985 at Littleton Studios in North Carolina, the prints, titled "When Choice isn't Possible," "Forever Unobtainable," "Needing to Make a Change," "She still Dreams of Flying" and "There is Healing to be Done" introduced a darker side to the artist's woman-oriented works. Almost a decade after those works where produced, Sigler noted in a 1994 interview that she thought the images in her paintings would change as she changed; instead, while the content of her work changed, her imagery remained the same.
In an interview published in Chicago’s New Art Examiner
, Sigler said that she realized that she would eventually die of breast cancer, and this knowledge had changed the way she approached her art. In 1992 she began her series of paintings “Breast Cancer Journal: Walking with the Ghosts of My Grandmothers.” Intensely personal, the vividly colored works portray unpeopled scenes where women’s clothing (dresses, aprons, corsets, gloves and stockings), furniture (including chairs, beds and vanities) and antique sculptures (including the Nike of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo
) are surrogates for the artist. Embued with a life of their own, they enact the emotional responses of the artist to her illness.
These paintings could be shockingly forthright. In a review of the 1993 exhibition "The Breast Cancer Journal: Walking with the Ghosts of my Grandmothers" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, journalist Lee Fleming wrote of the content of one painting in particular:
..." The lower part of the composition shows a night time village of small houses with glowing windows. A description from the National Museum of Women in the Arts notes that
A book of Sigler's paintings titled "The Breast Cancer Journal" was published by Hudson Hills Press in 1999.
, Baltimore Museum of Art
, Contemporary Arts Center
, Cincinnati, Ohio;
High Museum of Art
in Atlanta, Georgia; Indianapolis Museum of Art
, the National Gallery of Art
in Washington, DC; National Museum of Women in the Arts
, Washington, DC Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
and Seattle Art Museum
.
Naïve art
Naïve art is a classification of art that is often characterized by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique. While many naïve artists appear, from their works, to have little or no formal art training, this is often not true...
, featuring paintings whose subjects, furniture and clothing set in doll-house type interiors and suburban landscapes, were stand-ins for the implicitly female figure. She was an openly lesbian artist and a prominent member of the faculty of Columbia College
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
in Chicago. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985, Sigler’s themes became more personal, confronting ideas about body image, heredity, illness, mortality and hope.
Early life and education
Sigler was born Suzanne Hollis Sigler in Gary, Indiana to Philip Sigler and Marilyn Ryan Sigler. Her family moved to Cranbury, New Jersey when she was eleven. She completed grade school and high school there, receiving her diploma from Hightstown High School in 1966. Accord to her father, Sigler was interested in art as a child and began painting in elementary school. She went on to study art at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, where she was awarded the Bachelor of Arts in 1970; she completed graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received the Master of Fine Arts in 1973.She had early success with a series of photo realist paintings that depicted underwater swimmers but by 1976, in a gesture meant to repudiate what she considered a male-dominated style, she abandoned realism
Realism (visual arts)
Realism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...
entirely in favor of a faux-naïve approach. Her subject matter, presented in a way that suggested the work of an untutored or naïve
Naïve art
Naïve art is a classification of art that is often characterized by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique. While many naïve artists appear, from their works, to have little or no formal art training, this is often not true...
artist, focused on a woman’s world-view. A tendency toward autobiographical content was evident even at the early stages of what would become her signature style. According to the gallery owner Steven Scott, Sigler portrayed
"unpeopled room interiors and fanciful landscapes [that] depict the debris of an incident already climaxed. These scattered objects (along with the provocative handwritten titles appearing on each piece) convey not the cause but the effect of the drama of the departed heroine, whom Sigler acknowledges is her alter-ego."
Scott also observed that beneath the bright colors and expressionistic strokes of the artist's paintings was Sigler's examination of her fears and feelings of inadequacy, and the anger and hurt she felt in her relationships with her parents and lovers. Her paintings often compensated for these feelings with themes of escape and the fulfilment of desire.
Effect of cancer diagnosis and illness on art
Breast cancerBreast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
ran in Sigler’s family; her great-grandmother, Sarah Anna Truitt Ryan, died of the disease and Sigler’s mother, diagnosed with breast cancer in 1983, succumbed to it in April 1995. Sigler received a diagnosis of breast cancer in August 1985. The artist underwent a mastectomy
Mastectomy
Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, that is, to prevent cancer...
and chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
, but by 1993 the cancer had spread to her bones, pelvis and spine.
Among the first art works dealing with her illness that Sigler produced after her cancer diagnosis was a series of five vitreograph
Vitreography
Vitreography is a fine art printmaking technique that uses a float glass matrix instead of the traditional matrices of metal, wood or stone. A print created using the technique is called a vitreograph...
prints. Produced in the fall of 1985 at Littleton Studios in North Carolina, the prints, titled "When Choice isn't Possible," "Forever Unobtainable," "Needing to Make a Change," "She still Dreams of Flying" and "There is Healing to be Done" introduced a darker side to the artist's woman-oriented works. Almost a decade after those works where produced, Sigler noted in a 1994 interview that she thought the images in her paintings would change as she changed; instead, while the content of her work changed, her imagery remained the same.
In an interview published in Chicago’s New Art Examiner
New Art Examiner
New Art Examiner was a Chicago-based art magazine. Founded in October 1973 by Derek Guthrie and Jane Addams Allen. Publication ceased in 2002.November 2011 will see the release of Essential New Art Examiner, an Anthology of representative articles and editors...
, Sigler said that she realized that she would eventually die of breast cancer, and this knowledge had changed the way she approached her art. In 1992 she began her series of paintings “Breast Cancer Journal: Walking with the Ghosts of My Grandmothers.” Intensely personal, the vividly colored works portray unpeopled scenes where women’s clothing (dresses, aprons, corsets, gloves and stockings), furniture (including chairs, beds and vanities) and antique sculptures (including the Nike of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo
Venus de Milo
Aphrodite of Milos , better known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created at some time between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a marble sculpture, slightly...
) are surrogates for the artist. Embued with a life of their own, they enact the emotional responses of the artist to her illness.
These paintings could be shockingly forthright. In a review of the 1993 exhibition "The Breast Cancer Journal: Walking with the Ghosts of my Grandmothers" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, journalist Lee Fleming wrote of the content of one painting in particular:
"The glorious Nike of Samothrace, "Winged Victory," stands in armless profile atop a shallow fiery-hued tumulusThe paintings could also embody the artist's vision of the spiritual human being triumphing over the ordeal of breast cancer. Fleming cites "To Kiss the Spirits: Now this is What it is Really Like," as an example of a painting that "sums up Sigler's struggle in a glorious apotheosisTumulusA tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
not unlike a breast. Red rain falls; a bloodied, paving-stone path encirles the mound like a scar. The ground inside and outside this red-gray line is littered with discarded contemporary and antique clothes, all of which share a bleeding cutout where one breast would be..."
Apotheosis
Apotheosis is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre.In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature...
..." The lower part of the composition shows a night time village of small houses with glowing windows. A description from the National Museum of Women in the Arts notes that
"the upper two thirds of the canvas pay homage to Vincent Van Gogh's Starry NightThe Starry NightThe Starry Night is a painting by Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh. The painting depicts the view outside his sanitarium room window at night, although it was painted from memory during the day. Since 1941 it has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New...
. At the center of the picture, bathed in celestial light the silhouetted "Lady" rises effortlessly along a fluted staircase, changing color from purple through rose to white as her arms slowly lift upward to become an angel's wings."
A book of Sigler's paintings titled "The Breast Cancer Journal" was published by Hudson Hills Press in 1999.
Teaching
In 1978 Sigler became a member of the Columbia College Chicago faculty in the department of Art and Design. As a teacher, she was up to date on issues in contemporary art and had a talent for communicating this knowledge to her students. She was also fond of taking her students on field trips to learn first hand about influences in art from the European-based collections at the Art Institute of Chicago to the anthropologically-based exhibits at the Field Museum. Marlene Lipinski, a colleague of Sigler’s at Columbia College, said that Sigler believed that acquiring knowledge of other art forms was as important to the contemporary artist as creating her or his own art. Sigler’s teaching awards included the College Art Association’s Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in early 2001.Works in public collections
Art works by Hollis Sigler are in the collections of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; Art Institute of ChicagoArt Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
, Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
, Contemporary Arts Center
Contemporary Arts Center
The Contemporary Arts Center is a pioneering contemporary art museum located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media...
, Cincinnati, Ohio;
High Museum of Art
High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art , located in Atlanta, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States and one of the most-visited art museums in the world. Located on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district, the High is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center.-History:The Museum was...
in Atlanta, Georgia; Indianapolis Museum of Art
Indianapolis Museum of Art
The Indianapolis Museum of Art is an encyclopedic art museum located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The museum, which underwent a $74 million expansion in 2005, is located on a campus on the near northwest area outside downtown Indianapolis, northwest of Crown Hill Cemetery.The...
, the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
in Washington, DC; National Museum of Women in the Arts
National Museum of Women in the Arts
The National Museum of Women in the Arts , located in Washington, D.C. is the only museum solely dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay...
, Washington, DC Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
and Seattle Art Museum
Seattle Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on...
.