Aesthetic Realism Deathwatch:
When will AR die?
by Michael Bluejay • October 29, 2023
As soon as Aesthetic Realism's founder, Eli Siegel, killed himself in 1978, AR began its downward slide. The end now seems within sight. Let's take an assessment.
11 items down (55%) 8 items to go
| ✓ | Death of the founder | 11/10/78 |
Took his own life at age 76. |
| ✓ | No positive news coverage (by a non-Aesthetic Realist) | Last: 3/15/81 |
Last one: NY Daily News: "Gays who have gone
straight", by John Lewis, 1981. (This is poor reporting;
it's likely that no one actually
went straight.) |
| ✓ | No more picketing | Last: 5/13/82 |
To protest the New York Times not writing about AR,
the Aesthetic Realists used to protest at the Times
building and the personal home of the Times
publisher. (Really classy.) They also protested at
the home of the doctor who performed the surgery on their
leader, Eli Siegel, because they believed he intentionally
botched the operation because he was angry at his own great
respect for Siegel or some B.S. (There's no evidence that
there was anything wrong with the operation.) The last
protest I know of was against the Boston Globe in 1982
for its negative story about AR. ("Globe article on
'Aesthetic Realism' and gays prompts complaints", Boston
Globe, 5/24/82) |
| ✓ | No more big newspaper ads | Last: 1/10/90 |
AR bought a general full-page ad in the New York Times in
1976; big newspaper ads in 1978, 1979, 1980 to promote the gay
cure; and a huge double-page
ad in the New York Times in 1990 to promote AR in
general. That last one backfired, though: It was so
over-the-top, that if anyone wasn't sure whether AR was a cult
before seeing the ad, they definitely knew the score after they
saw it. |
| ✓ | No more leafletting | Last: 2000s |
The Aesthetic Realists used
to hand out leaflets in public (e.g. Washington Square
Park). Apparently, not any more. |
| ✓ | No more books | Last: 1/1/2008 |
Last one: The People of Clarendon County. See below for my notes on AR's books. |
| ✓ | No new members | Last: circa 2008 (best estimate) |
AR doesn't make this info public so we have to use our best
estimate. We are pretty sure that there have
been only six new "Associates" between 2001-22. (If AR
will tell us when the last was appointed, we'll take their word
for it.) As far as rank-and-file members just doing
"consultations", all to most new people who start consultations
leave shortly thereafter. Again, if AR wants to let us
know of any new consultee who's been studying for at least a
year, we're all ears. |
| ✓ | No letters to the editor / guest editorials | Last: 10/19/16 |
Concluding that the press would never be "fair" to AR (i.e.,
writing fawning articles about it), ARists decided to become
the press in April 1996, sending their own letters to the editor
and guest editorials to various newspapers. The letters
always referenced some current event but quickly turned to
"Aesthetic Realism and/or Eli Siegel explains this". But
now they've apparently given up. The last one:
Record-Journal (Meriden, CT), 2016. |
| ✓ | No neutral or negative news coverage | Last: 7/19/18 |
The Villager: "SoHo
group is still quietly preaching, quietly, the principles of
Eli" • (Previous: VICE, 8/27/13: "I
joined NYC's most boring cult", by Ryan P McCarthy) |
| ✓ | No outside events | Last: 3/10/19 |
Photography
presentation in Tampa, FL |
| ✓ | No events at their headquarters | Last: 3/2020, according to their
calendar |
According to the
photo from their website, they removed the stage from
the Terrain Gallery! That would mean no more seminars,
dramatic presentations, concerts, etc. Donna Lamb
noticed the stage gone from the photo in 2023, but certainly
since 2020 AR hasn't had any events. (Their website says
that they shut down because of COVID, but everything else is
open again except AR.) AR says that it shut down
because of COVID, but as of 2022, everything else is open again
except AR. |
| ? | No online consultations | prob. few to none |
These might still be taking place. However, as of the
early 2000s there were doing about four consultations a
week. As I write this in 2022, the last tweet with the
hashtag #AestheticRealismConsultations
was a year ago. |
| ✗ | No classes or consultations | active |
These seem to still be taking place, albeit remotely. |
| ✗ | Current leader gone | 1978- |
When founder/leader Eli Siegel died in 1978, his appointed
successor Ellen Reiss, then 33, took over, with the title "Class
Chairman". She's been running the show since then. |
| ✗ | No AR "consultants" remaining | ~22 left |
Down from ~33 in 2009. |
| ✗ | No AR "associates" remaining | ~45 left |
Down from ~44 in 2009. |
| ✗ | Website domain registration not renewed | ||
| ✗ | Non-profit corporation registration not renewed | Non-profit organizations are required to renew their
registration every year with the state. Once there's no
one left to do that, the organization is officially over. |
|
| ✗ | Building leased to another tenant | Before selling their building at 141 Greene St., they might
lease it to another tenant and still retain ownership. |
|
| ✗ | Building sold | At some point the building will be sold, probably well before
there are no more Aesthetic Realists left, because there won't
be enough money to pay for utilities, maintenance, and
insurance. |
|
| ✗ | No AR adherents in the world |
Notes
- See Why is AR dying?
- If I've missed some events or articles, it's not intentional. The above is what I was able to find. I'm happy to correct if a reader can provide a source for the correction.
- No coverage at all. I'm not counting mere notices of events.
- Blog posts. I'm not using "No more blog posts" as a criterion because AR's "blog" is hardly that. There's no chronological list of posts, or comment ability, two defining aspects of blogs.
Notes on their books
- 2008: The People of Clarendon County. This book has all of one review on Amazon. This is the book I'm counting as their last book, because it's the only one in this list with substantial content of AR's philosophy, and it's readily available (Amazon).
- Later 2008: Were They Equal?" If it's not on Amazon, does it really count?
- 2012: Photography, Life, and the Opposites. Likely mostly photos with little content on AR philosophy. The forward isn't even by an Aesthetic Realist.
- 2014: Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington. Can't call it an AR book since it seems to scarcely mention AR.
- 2016: Black and White: A Poem With Photographs. Not on Amazon, and is probably mostly photos with little about AR philosophy. Even if we count it, that still means it's been years since they've had a new book.
- 2/16/22: Answer to Racism. This is an update to their 2004 book, but on Amazon on 4/24/22 I see that Amazon says it's "Out of Print", which likely means that it was never actually available.