Anita Steckel
American feminist artist known for paintings and photomontages with sexual imagery, the founder of the arts organization "The Fight Censorship Group" (1930–2012)
Anita Steckel (née Arkin; February 24, 1930 – March 16, 2012) was an American feminist artist known for paintings and photomontages with sexual imagery. She was also the founder of the arts organization "The Fight Censorship Group", whose other members included Hannah Wilke, Louise Bourgeois, Judith Bernstein, Martha Edelheit, Eunice Golden, Juanita McNeely, Barbara Nessim, Anne Sharpe and Joan Semmel.
Early life and education
Steckel was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants Dora and Hyman Arkin. Her mother was reportedly abusive and her father was a gambler. She left home after an early graduation from the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan (now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art). As a single young woman, Steckel dated Marlon Brando and worked on a Norwegian freighter that traveled to South America for two months. She also worked as a dancing instructor, where she won a competition and was crowned the "Mambo Queen of Southern California". She then went back to New York to study at Cooper Union, and Alfred University, as well as completing advanced study at the Art Students League of New York with Edwin Dickinson She also taught for several years at The Art Students League of New York. She worked and lived most of her time in a studio in Greenwich Village. In 1970, Steckel moved to the Westbeth Artists' Housing in Manhattan, New York, where she lived the rest of her life.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4765643. VIAF identifies the subject as 301203616. The Library of Congress control number is no2017097512. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 2012 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anita Steckel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.