Diane Arbus
Encyclopedia
Diane Arbus was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white
square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs
, giants
, transvestites
, nudists
, circus
performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal
." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid... that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freak
s'"; however, that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her.
In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale
. Millions of people viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979. In 2003–2006, Arbus and her work were the subjects of another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations. In 2006, the motion picture Fur
, starring Nicole Kidman
as Arbus, presented a fictional version of her life story.
Although some of Arbus's photographs have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, Arbus's work has provoked controversy; for example, Norman Mailer
was quoted in 1971 as saying "Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child."
while growing up in the 1930s. Arbus's father became a painter after retiring from Russeks; her younger sister would become a sculptor and designer; and her older brother, Howard Nemerov
, would later become United States Poet Laureate, and the father of the Americanist art historian Alexander Nemerov.
Diane Nemerov attended the Fieldston School for Ethical Culture
, a prep school
. In 1941, at the age of 18, she married her childhood sweetheart Allan Arbus
. Their first daughter Doon
(who would later become a writer) was born in 1945 and their second daughter Amy
(who would later become a photographer) was born in 1954.
Diane and Allan Arbus separated in 1958, and they were divorced in 1969.
, where Diane learned about photographers such as Mathew Brady
, Timothy O'Sullivan
, Paul Strand
, Bill Brandt
, and Eugène Atget
. In the early 1940s Diane's father employed them to take photographs for the department store's advertisements. Allan was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II.
In 1946, after the war, the Arbuses began a commercial photography business called "Diane & Allan Arbus", with Diane as art director and Allan as the photographer. They contributed to Glamour
, Seventeen
, Vogue
, Harper's Bazaar
, and other magazines even though "they both hated the fashion world." Despite over 200 pages of their fashion editorial in Glamour, and over 80 pages in Vogue, the Arbuses' fashion photography has been described as of "middling quality." Edward Steichen
's noted 1955 photographic exhibit, The Family of Man
, did include a photograph by the Arbuses of a father and son reading a newspaper.
In 1956, Diane Arbus quit the commercial photography business. Although earlier she had studied photography with Berenice Abbott
, her studies with Lisette Model
beginning in 1956 led to Arbus's most well-known methods and style. She began photographing on assignment for magazines such as Esquire
, Harper's Bazaar, and The Sunday Times Magazine
in 1959. Approximately 1962, Arbus switched from a 35mm
Nikon
camera which produced grainy rectangular images to a twin-lens reflex
Rolleiflex
camera which produced more detailed square images.
In 1963 Arbus was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
for a project on "American rites, manners, and customs"; the fellowship was renewed in 1966. In 1964 Arbus began using a twin-lens reflex Mamiya
camera with flash in addition to the Rolleiflex. Her methods included establishing a strong personal relationship with her subjects and re-photographing some of them over many years.
During the 1960s, she taught photography at the Parsons School of Design and the Cooper Union
in New York City, and the Rhode Island School of Design
in Providence, Rhode Island
. The first major exhibition of her photographs occurred at the Museum of Modern Art
in a 1967 show called "New Documents" which was curated by John Szarkowski
and which also featured the work of Garry Winogrand
and Lee Friedlander
. Some of her artistic work was done on assignment. Although she continued to photograph on assignment (e.g., in 1968 she shot documentary photographs of poor sharecroppers
in rural South Carolina for Esquire magazine), in general her magazine assignments decreased as her fame as an artist increased. Szarkowski hired Arbus in 1970 to research an exhibition on photojournalism
called "From the Picture Press"; it included many photographs by Weegee
whose work Arbus admired.
Using softer light than in her previous photography, she took a series of photographs in her later years of people with intellectual disability
showing a range of emotions. At first, Arbus considered these photographs to be "lyric and tender and pretty", but by June 1971 she told Lisette Model that she hated them.
Among other photographers and artists she befriended during her career, she was close to photographer Richard Avedon
; he was approximately the same age, his family had also run a Fifth Avenue department store, and many of his photographs were also characterized as detailed frontal poses. Another good friend was Marvin Israel
, an artist, graphic designer, and art director whom Arbus met in 1959.
episodes" during her life similar to those experienced by her mother, and the episodes may have been worsened by symptoms of hepatitis
. Arbus wrote in 1968 "I go up and down a lot", and her ex-husband noted that she had "violent changes of mood." On July 26, 1971, while living at Westbeth Artists Community
in New York City, Arbus took her own life by ingesting barbiturate
s and slashing her wrists with a razor. Marvin Israel
found her body in the bathtub two days later; she was 48 years old.
Arbus's most well-known individual photographs include:
In addition, Arbus's Box of Ten Photographs was a portfolio of selected 1963–1970 photographs in a clear Plexiglas box/frame that was designed by Marvin Israel and that was to have been issued in a limited edition of 50. During her lifetime, however, Arbus completed only about 11 boxes and sold only 4 boxes (2 to Richard Avedon, 1 to Jasper Johns
, and 1 to Bea Feitler
). One copy printed by Neil Selkirk
after Arbus's death sold for $553,600 in 2005, which was an auction record for Arbus.
In mid–1972 Arbus was the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale
; her ten photographs were described as "the overwhelming sensation of the American Pavilion" and "an extraordinary achievement".
The Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective of Arbus's work in late 1972 that subsequently traveled around the United States and Canada through 1975; it was estimated that over 7 million people saw the exhibition. A different retrospective traveled around the world in 1973–1979.
Doon Arbus and Marvin Israel
edited and designed a 1972 book Diane Arbus (or Diane Arbus: an Aperture
Monograph) accompanying the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition. It contained 80 of Arbus's photographs, as well as texts from classes that Arbus gave in 1971, from Arbus's writings, and from Arbus's interviews. The text in the book includes some of Arbus's most widely cited quotations such as:
In 2001–2004 the 1972 book was selected as one of the most important photobooks in history. Over 300,000 copies of the book had been sold by 2004, which is unusual since "independent" photobook
s are normally produced in editions of less than 5,000.
A half-hour documentary film about Arbus's life and work known as Masters of Photography: Diane Arbus or Going Where I've Never Been: the Photography of Diane Arbus was produced in 1972 and released on video in 1989.
Patricia Bosworth
wrote an unauthorized biography of Arbus that was published in 1984. Although it is said to be "the main source" for understanding Arbus, Bosworth reportedly "received no help from Arbus's daughters, or from their father, or from two of her closest and most prescient friends, Avedon and... Marvin Israel." The book was also criticized for insufficiently considering Arbus's personal writings, for speculating about missing information, and for focusing on "sex, depression and famous people" instead of Arbus's art.
In 2003–2006, Arbus and her work were the subject of another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations, that was organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
. Accompanied by a book of the same name, the exhibition included artifacts such as correspondence, books, and cameras as well as 180 photographs by Arbus. Because Arbus's estate approved the exhibition and book, the chronology in the book is "effectively the first authorized biography of the photographer".
In 2006, the fictional film Fur: an Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
was released, starring Nicole Kidman
as Arbus; it used Patricia Bosworth's book Diane Arbus: A Biography as a source of inspiration. The Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased 20 of Arbus's photographs (valued at millions of dollars) and received Arbus's archives as a gift from her estate in 2007.
wrote an essay in 1973 entitled "Freak Show" that was critical of Arbus's work; it was reprinted in her 1977 book On Photography
as "America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly." Among other criticisms, Sontag opposed the lack of beauty in Arbus's work and its failure to make the viewer feel compassionate about Arbus's subjects. Sontag's essay itself has been criticized as "an exercise in aesthetic insensibility" and "exemplary for its shallowness". A 2008 essay characterized Sontag and Arbus as "Siamese twins
of photographic art" because they both struggled with photography as art versus documentation (e.g., the relationship of photographer and subject). A 2009 article pointed out that Arbus had photographed Sontag and her son in 1965, thereby causing one to "wonder if Sontag felt this was an unfair portrait."
Other critics' opinions of Arbus's photographs vary widely, for example:
Arbus's subjects and their relatives also have differing views:
One study published in 1985 examined the opinions of 18 women viewing 8 Arbus photographs. The subjects tended to agree with statements based on Arbus's own words such as "These photographs show the gap between intention and effect" and tended to disagree with statements based on critics' views of Arbus such as "These photographs show the world only as a meaningless place of ugliness, horror and misery."
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs
Dwarfism
Dwarfism is short stature resulting from a medical condition. It is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than 4 feet 10 inches , although this definition is problematic because short stature in itself is not a disorder....
, giants
Gigantism
Gigantism, also known as giantism , is a condition characterized by excessive growth and height significantly above average...
, transvestites
Transvestism
Transvestism is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, the word often has additional connotations. -History:Although the word transvestism was coined as late as the 1910s,...
, nudists
Naturism
Naturism or nudism is a cultural and political movement practising, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in public. It may also refer to a lifestyle based on personal, family and/or social nudism....
, circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid... that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freak
Freak
In current usage, the word "freak" is commonly used to refer to a person with something unusual about their appearance or behaviour. This usage dates from the so-called freak scene of the 1960s and 1970s. "Freak" in this sense may be used either as a pejorative, a term of admiration, or a...
s'"; however, that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her.
In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
. Millions of people viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979. In 2003–2006, Arbus and her work were the subjects of another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations. In 2006, the motion picture Fur
Fur (film)
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus is a 2006 film starring Nicole Kidman as iconic American photographer Diane Arbus, who was known for her strange, disturbing images.-Plot synopsis:...
, starring Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
as Arbus, presented a fictional version of her life story.
Although some of Arbus's photographs have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, Arbus's work has provoked controversy; for example, Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
was quoted in 1971 as saying "Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child."
Personal life
Arbus was born as Diane Nemerov to David Nemerov and Gertrude Russek Nemerov. The Nemerovs were a Jewish couple who lived in New York City and owned Russek's, a famous Fifth Avenue department store. Because of the family's wealth, Diane was insulated from the effects of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
while growing up in the 1930s. Arbus's father became a painter after retiring from Russeks; her younger sister would become a sculptor and designer; and her older brother, Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
, would later become United States Poet Laureate, and the father of the Americanist art historian Alexander Nemerov.
Diane Nemerov attended the Fieldston School for Ethical Culture
Ethical Culture Fieldston School
The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, known as "Fieldston", is a private "independent" school in New York City and a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. It has about 1600 students and a staff of 400 people , led by Dr. Damian J...
, a prep school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
. In 1941, at the age of 18, she married her childhood sweetheart Allan Arbus
Allan Arbus
Allan Arbus is an American actor notable for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman on the television series M*A*S*H.-Early life:...
. Their first daughter Doon
Doon Arbus
Doon Arbus, , daughter of actor Allan Arbus and the late photographer Diane Arbus, is a writer and journalist. Her sister, Amy Arbus, is a photojournalist...
(who would later become a writer) was born in 1945 and their second daughter Amy
Amy Arbus
Amy Arbus is a New York City based photographer and is the daughter of actor Allan Arbus and photographer Diane Arbus, and the sister of writer and journalist Doon Arbus....
(who would later become a photographer) was born in 1954.
Diane and Allan Arbus separated in 1958, and they were divorced in 1969.
Photographic career
The Arbuses were both interested in photography. In 1941 they visited the gallery of Alfred StieglitzAlfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
, where Diane learned about photographers such as Mathew Brady
Mathew Brady
Mathew B. Brady was one of the most celebrated 19th century American photographers, best known for his portraits of celebrities and his documentation of the American Civil War...
, Timothy O'Sullivan
Timothy H. O'Sullivan
Timothy H. O'Sullivan was a photographer widely known for his work related to the American Civil War and the Western United States.O'Sullivan was born in New York City. As a teenager, he was employed by Mathew Brady...
, Paul Strand
Paul Strand
Paul Strand was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century...
, Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt was an influential British photographer and photojournalist known for his high-contrast images of British society and his distorted nudes and landscapes.-Career and life:...
, and Eugène Atget
Eugène Atget
Eugène Atget was a French photographer noted for his photographs documenting the architecture and street scenes of Paris....
. In the early 1940s Diane's father employed them to take photographs for the department store's advertisements. Allan was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II.
In 1946, after the war, the Arbuses began a commercial photography business called "Diane & Allan Arbus", with Diane as art director and Allan as the photographer. They contributed to Glamour
Glamour (magazine)
Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....
, Seventeen
Seventeen (magazine)
Seventeen is an American magazine for teenagers. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications. News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988, and sold Seventeen to K-III Communications in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. It is still in the...
, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, and other magazines even though "they both hated the fashion world." Despite over 200 pages of their fashion editorial in Glamour, and over 80 pages in Vogue, the Arbuses' fashion photography has been described as of "middling quality." Edward Steichen
Edward Steichen
Edward J. Steichen was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Steichen also contributed the logo design and a custom typeface...
's noted 1955 photographic exhibit, The Family of Man
The Family of Man
The Family of Man was a photography exhibition curated by Edward Steichen first shown in 1955 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.According to Steichen, the exhibition represented the 'culmination of his career'. The 508 photos by 273 photographers in 68 countries were selected from almost 2...
, did include a photograph by the Arbuses of a father and son reading a newspaper.
In 1956, Diane Arbus quit the commercial photography business. Although earlier she had studied photography with Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott
Berenice Abbott , born Bernice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s.-Youth:...
, her studies with Lisette Model
Lisette Model
Lisette Model was an Austrian-born American photographer.Lisette Model was born Elise Felic Amelie Stern in Vienna, Austria...
beginning in 1956 led to Arbus's most well-known methods and style. She began photographing on assignment for magazines such as Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, Harper's Bazaar, and The Sunday Times Magazine
The Sunday Times Magazine
The Sunday Times Magazine is a supplement to The Sunday Times newspaper. It was launched in 1962 and was redesigned in November 2008.-References:...
in 1959. Approximately 1962, Arbus switched from a 35mm
135 film
The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...
Nikon
Nikon
, also known as just Nikon, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which...
camera which produced grainy rectangular images to a twin-lens reflex
Twin-lens reflex camera
A twin-lens reflex camera is a type of camera with two objective lenses of the same focal length. One of the lenses is the photographic objective or "taking lens" , while the other is used for the viewfinder system, which is usually viewed from above at waist level...
Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex
Rolleiflex is the name of a long-running and diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei-Werk. The "Rolleiflex" name is most commonly used to refer to Rollei's premier line of medium format twin lens reflex cameras...
camera which produced more detailed square images.
In 1963 Arbus was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
for a project on "American rites, manners, and customs"; the fellowship was renewed in 1966. In 1964 Arbus began using a twin-lens reflex Mamiya
Mamiya
is a Japanese company that today manufactures high-end cameras and other related photographic and optical equipment. With headquarters in Tokyo, it has two manufacturing plants and a workforce of over 200 people...
camera with flash in addition to the Rolleiflex. Her methods included establishing a strong personal relationship with her subjects and re-photographing some of them over many years.
During the 1960s, she taught photography at the Parsons School of Design and the Cooper Union
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
in New York City, and the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. The first major exhibition of her photographs occurred at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in a 1967 show called "New Documents" which was curated by John Szarkowski
John Szarkowski
John Szarkowski was a photographer, curator, historian, and critic. From 1962 to 1991 Szarkowski was the Director of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art.-Early life and career:...
and which also featured the work of Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand was a street photographer known for his portrayal of America in the mid-20th century. John Szarkowski called him the central photographer of his generation....
and Lee Friedlander
Lee Friedlander
Lee Friedlander is an American photographer and artist. In the 1960s and 70s, working primarily with 35mm cameras and black and white film, Friedlander evolved an influential and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," with many of the photographs including fragments of...
. Some of her artistic work was done on assignment. Although she continued to photograph on assignment (e.g., in 1968 she shot documentary photographs of poor sharecroppers
Sharecropping
Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land . This should not be confused with a crop fixed rent contract, in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a fixed amount of...
in rural South Carolina for Esquire magazine), in general her magazine assignments decreased as her fame as an artist increased. Szarkowski hired Arbus in 1970 to research an exhibition on photojournalism
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
called "From the Picture Press"; it included many photographs by Weegee
Weegee
Weegee was the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig , a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography....
whose work Arbus admired.
Using softer light than in her previous photography, she took a series of photographs in her later years of people with intellectual disability
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
showing a range of emotions. At first, Arbus considered these photographs to be "lyric and tender and pretty", but by June 1971 she told Lisette Model that she hated them.
Among other photographers and artists she befriended during her career, she was close to photographer Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
; he was approximately the same age, his family had also run a Fifth Avenue department store, and many of his photographs were also characterized as detailed frontal poses. Another good friend was Marvin Israel
Marvin Israel
Marvin Israel , was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Bessie and Harry Israel. He was an American artist, photographer, painter, teacher and art director from New York known for modern/surreal interiors, abstract imagery. Created sinister shadowy and exuberant interiors with implications of...
, an artist, graphic designer, and art director whom Arbus met in 1959.
Death
Arbus experienced "depressiveMood disorder
Mood disorder is the term designating a group of diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classification system where a disturbance in the person's mood is hypothesized to be the main underlying feature...
episodes" during her life similar to those experienced by her mother, and the episodes may have been worsened by symptoms of hepatitis
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
. Arbus wrote in 1968 "I go up and down a lot", and her ex-husband noted that she had "violent changes of mood." On July 26, 1971, while living at Westbeth Artists Community
Westbeth Artists Community
Westbeth Artists Housing, located at 463 West Street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan, is the largest such community in the world. This low- to middle-income rental housing project was developed with the assistance of the J.M...
in New York City, Arbus took her own life by ingesting barbiturate
Barbiturate
Barbiturates are drugs that act as central nervous system depressants, and can therefore produce a wide spectrum of effects, from mild sedation to total anesthesia. They are also effective as anxiolytics, as hypnotics, and as anticonvulsants...
s and slashing her wrists with a razor. Marvin Israel
Marvin Israel
Marvin Israel , was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Bessie and Harry Israel. He was an American artist, photographer, painter, teacher and art director from New York known for modern/surreal interiors, abstract imagery. Created sinister shadowy and exuberant interiors with implications of...
found her body in the bathtub two days later; she was 48 years old.
Notable photographs
- Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central ParkChild with Toy Hand Grenade in Central ParkChild with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City, USA is a famous photograph by Diane Arbus.The photo shows a boy, with the left strap of his jumper awkwardly hanging off his shoulder, tensely holding his long, thin arms by his side. Clenched in his right hand is a toy grenade, and his...
, N.Y.C. 1962 — Colin Wood, with the left strap of his jumper awkwardly hanging off his shoulder, tensely holds his long, thin arms by his side. Clenching a toy grenadeGrenadeA grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...
in his right hand and holding his left hand in a claw-like gesture, his facial expression is maniacal. A print of this photograph was sold in 2005 at auction for $408,000. - Teenage Couple on Hudson Street, N.Y.C., 1963 — Wearing long coats and "worldlywise expressions", two adolescents appear older than their ages.
- Triplets in Their Bedroom, N.J. 1963 — Three girls sit at the head of a bed.
- A Young Brooklyn Family Going for a Sunday Outing, N.Y.C. 1966 — Richard and Marylin Dauria, who actually lived in the Bronx. Marylin holds their baby daughter, and Richard holds the hand of their young son, who is mentally-retarded.
- A Young Man in Curlers at Home on West 20th Street, N.Y.C. 1966 — A close-up shows the man's pock-marked face with plucked eyebrows, and his hand with long fingernails holds a cigarette. Early reactions to the photograph were strong; for example, someone spit on it in 1967 at the Museum of Modern Art. A print was sold for $198,400 at a 2004 auction.
- Boy With a Straw Hat Waiting to March in a Pro-War Parade, N.Y.C. 1967 — With an American flag at his side, he wears a bow tie, a pin in the shape of a bow tie with an American flag motif, and two round button badges: "Bomb HanoiHanoiHanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
" and "God Bless America / Support Our Boys in Viet NamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
." The image may cause the viewer to feel both different from the boy and sympathetic toward him. An art consulting firm purchased a print for $228,000 at a 2005 auction. - Identical Twins, Roselle, N.J. 1967Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 is a noted photograph by photographer Diane Arbus from the United States.Diane Arbus was known for her photographs of outsiders and people on the fringes of society. She often shot with a Rolleiflex medium format twin-lens reflex that provided a square...
— Young twin sisters Cathleen and Colleen Wade stand side by side in dark dresses. The twin on the right slightly smiles and twin on the left slightly frowns. This photograph is echoed in Stanley KubrickStanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
's film The ShiningThe Shining (film)The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an...
, which features twins in an identical pose as ghosts. A print was sold at auction for $478,400 in 2004. The photograph also appears briefly in the 2007 film Butterfly on a WheelButterfly on a WheelButterfly on a Wheel is a 2007 Canadian thriller film directed by Mike Barker, co-produced and written by William Morrissey, and starring Pierce Brosnan, Gerard Butler, and Maria Bello...
when one character receives a book of Arbus' work as a gift. - A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, N.Y. 1968 — A woman and a man sunbathe while a boy bends over a small plastic wading pool behind them. A print was sold at auction in 2008 for $553,000.
- A Naked Man Being a Woman, N.Y.C. 1968 — The subject has been described as in a "Venus-on-the-half-shellThe Birth of Venus (Botticelli)The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore...
pose" or as "a MadonnaMadonna (art)Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains...
turned in contrappostoContrappostoContrapposto is an Italian term that means counterpose. It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs. This gives the figure a more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed...
... with his penis hidden between his legs". The parted curtain behind the man adds to the theatrical quality of the photograph. - A Very Young Baby, N.Y.C. 1968 — A photograph for Harper's Bazaar depicts Gloria VanderbiltGloria VanderbiltGloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
's then-infant son, future CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
anchorman Anderson CooperAnderson CooperAnderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...
. - A Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents in The Bronx, N.Y. 1970 — Eddie CarmelEddie CarmelEddie Carmel was an entertainer with gigantism and subsequent acromegaly resulting from a pituitary adenoma. Popularly known as "The Jewish Giant", Carmel was billed at the height of 8 ft 9 in tall, though he may have more realistically been around 7 ft 6 ¾ in tall...
, the "Jewish Giant", stands in his family's apartment with his much shorter mother and father. Arbus reportedly said to a friend about this picture: "You know how every mother has nightmares when she's pregnant that her baby will be born a monster?... I think I got that in the mother's face...." The photograph motivated Carmel's cousin to narrate a 1999 audio documentary about him. A print was sold at auction for $421,000 in 2007.
In addition, Arbus's Box of Ten Photographs was a portfolio of selected 1963–1970 photographs in a clear Plexiglas box/frame that was designed by Marvin Israel and that was to have been issued in a limited edition of 50. During her lifetime, however, Arbus completed only about 11 boxes and sold only 4 boxes (2 to Richard Avedon, 1 to Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...
, and 1 to Bea Feitler
Bea Feitler
Beatriz Feitler , was a Brazilian designer and art director best known for her work in Harper's Bazaar, Ms., Rolling Stone and the premiere issue of the modern Vanity Fair.-Early life, education and early career:...
). One copy printed by Neil Selkirk
Neil Selkirk
Neil Selkirk is an American photographer known for his portraiture.-Photography career:Selkirk was born in London, England. He studied Photography at the , graduating in 1968 and Moved to New York City in 1970 to work as an assistant for photographer Hiro . The following year, he studied with...
after Arbus's death sold for $553,600 in 2005, which was an auction record for Arbus.
Notable magazine articles
- "The Vertical Journey: Six Movements of a Moment Within the Heart of the City", Esquire, July 1960. This was the first magazine article that Arbus produced without Allan Arbus.
- "The Full Circle", Harper's Bazaar, November 1961. This included 4,000 words of text and photographs of five people such as "Jack Dracula, the Marked Man."
- "Mae WestMae WestMae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
: Emotion in Motion", Show, January 1965. Although Arbus's writing showed "great style and lucidity", West's lawyer wrote a letter to the publisher claiming that Arbus's photographs were "unflattering" to West. - "La Dolce Viva," by Barbara L. Goldsmith, New York, April 29, 1968. The article included a large photograph by Arbus of actress and model VivaViva (Warhol superstar)Viva is an American actress, writer and a former Warhol superstar.-Career:She was born Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann in Syracuse, New York. She was given the name Viva by Andy Warhol before the release of her first film but later used her married last name . She appeared in several of Warhol's films...
reclining on a sofa; her breasts are bare, and her eyes are rolled upwards as though she had taken psychoactive drugPsychoactive drugA psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
s. As a result of the photograph, Vogue magazine canceled its modeling contracts with Viva. - "Five Photographs by Diane Arbus." Artforum, volume 9, pages 64–69, May 1971. This article contains a famous quotation by Arbus: "A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.
Legacy
After Arbus's death, her daughter Doon managed Arbus's estate. She forbade examination of Arbus's correspondence and often denied permission for exhibition or reproduction of Arbus's photographs. The editors of an academic journal published a two-page complaint in 1993 about the estate's control over Arbus's images and its attempt to censor part of an article about Arbus. As of 2000, the estate would not release Arbus's 1957–1965 images of transvestites. A 2005 article called the estate's allowing the British press to reproduce only 15 photographs an attempt to "control criticism and debate." The estate was also criticized in 2008 for minimizing Arbus's early commercial work.In mid–1972 Arbus was the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
; her ten photographs were described as "the overwhelming sensation of the American Pavilion" and "an extraordinary achievement".
The Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective of Arbus's work in late 1972 that subsequently traveled around the United States and Canada through 1975; it was estimated that over 7 million people saw the exhibition. A different retrospective traveled around the world in 1973–1979.
Doon Arbus and Marvin Israel
Marvin Israel
Marvin Israel , was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Bessie and Harry Israel. He was an American artist, photographer, painter, teacher and art director from New York known for modern/surreal interiors, abstract imagery. Created sinister shadowy and exuberant interiors with implications of...
edited and designed a 1972 book Diane Arbus (or Diane Arbus: an Aperture
Aperture Foundation
The Aperture Foundation was founded in 1952 by Ansel Adams, Minor White, Barbara Morgan, Dorothea Lange, Nancy Newhall, Beaumont Newhall, Ernest Louie, Melton Ferris, and Dody Warren. Their vision was to create a forum for fine art photography, a new concept at the time. The first issue of...
Monograph) accompanying the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition. It contained 80 of Arbus's photographs, as well as texts from classes that Arbus gave in 1971, from Arbus's writings, and from Arbus's interviews. The text in the book includes some of Arbus's most widely cited quotations such as:
- Page 1: "My favorite thing is to go where I've never been."
- Pages 1–2: "Our whole guise is like giving a sign to the world to think of us in a certain way but there's a point between what you want people to know about you and what you can't help people knowing about you. And that has to do with what I've always called the gap between intention and effect."
- Page 3: "Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. ... Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats."
- Page 15: "I do feel I have some slight corner on something about the quality of things. I mean it's very subtle and a little embarrassing to me, but I really believe there are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them."
In 2001–2004 the 1972 book was selected as one of the most important photobooks in history. Over 300,000 copies of the book had been sold by 2004, which is unusual since "independent" photobook
Photobook
A photo-book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. The most critically acclaimed photo-books celebrate the creative work of an individual photographer, but can also result from the collaboration between a photographer and a writer, an...
s are normally produced in editions of less than 5,000.
A half-hour documentary film about Arbus's life and work known as Masters of Photography: Diane Arbus or Going Where I've Never Been: the Photography of Diane Arbus was produced in 1972 and released on video in 1989.
Patricia Bosworth
Patricia Bosworth
Patricia Bosworth is an American journalist and biographer. A former faculty member of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, she has also been an editor, actress and model.-Early life and career:...
wrote an unauthorized biography of Arbus that was published in 1984. Although it is said to be "the main source" for understanding Arbus, Bosworth reportedly "received no help from Arbus's daughters, or from their father, or from two of her closest and most prescient friends, Avedon and... Marvin Israel." The book was also criticized for insufficiently considering Arbus's personal writings, for speculating about missing information, and for focusing on "sex, depression and famous people" instead of Arbus's art.
In 2003–2006, Arbus and her work were the subject of another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations, that was organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
. Accompanied by a book of the same name, the exhibition included artifacts such as correspondence, books, and cameras as well as 180 photographs by Arbus. Because Arbus's estate approved the exhibition and book, the chronology in the book is "effectively the first authorized biography of the photographer".
In 2006, the fictional film Fur: an Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
Fur (film)
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus is a 2006 film starring Nicole Kidman as iconic American photographer Diane Arbus, who was known for her strange, disturbing images.-Plot synopsis:...
was released, starring Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
as Arbus; it used Patricia Bosworth's book Diane Arbus: A Biography as a source of inspiration. The Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased 20 of Arbus's photographs (valued at millions of dollars) and received Arbus's archives as a gift from her estate in 2007.
Reactions of critics and others
Susan SontagSusan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
wrote an essay in 1973 entitled "Freak Show" that was critical of Arbus's work; it was reprinted in her 1977 book On Photography
On Photography
On Photography is a 1977 collection of essays by Susan Sontag. It originally appeared as a series of essays in the New York Review of Books between 1973 and 1977.-Contents:...
as "America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly." Among other criticisms, Sontag opposed the lack of beauty in Arbus's work and its failure to make the viewer feel compassionate about Arbus's subjects. Sontag's essay itself has been criticized as "an exercise in aesthetic insensibility" and "exemplary for its shallowness". A 2008 essay characterized Sontag and Arbus as "Siamese twins
Conjoined twins
Conjoined twins are identical twins whose bodies are joined in utero. A rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 50,000 births to 1 in 100,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in Southwest Asia and Africa. Approximately half are stillborn, and a smaller fraction of...
of photographic art" because they both struggled with photography as art versus documentation (e.g., the relationship of photographer and subject). A 2009 article pointed out that Arbus had photographed Sontag and her son in 1965, thereby causing one to "wonder if Sontag felt this was an unfair portrait."
Other critics' opinions of Arbus's photographs vary widely, for example:
- Max KozloffMax KozloffMax Kozloff is an American Art Historian, art critic of modern art and photographer. He has been art editor at The Nation, and Executive Editor of Artforum...
wrote in 1967 that Arbus's photographs have "an extraordinary ethical conviction" because they were taken with the subjects' consent and thereby challenge the viewer. - Robert HughesRobert Hughes (critic)Robert Studley Forrest Hughes, AO is an Australian-born art critic, writer and television documentary maker who has resided in New York since 1970.-Early life:...
praised Arbus in 1972 as having "altered our experience of the face." - Hilton KramerHilton KramerHilton Kramer is a U.S. art critic and cultural commentator.Kramer was educated at Syracuse University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Indiana University and the New School for Social Research. He worked as the editor of Arts Magazine, art critic for The Nation, and from 1965 to 1982,...
opined in 1972 that Arbus "altered the terms of the art she practiced" and "completely wins us over." - Judith Goldman in 1974 was of the opinion that Arbus's photographs betrayed their subjects by portraying them as full of despair.
- David PagelDavid Pagel-Contemporary Art Criticism:Pagel is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times and has written nearly 500 articles since 1997. He serves as Chair of the Art Department at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California....
in 1992 found Arbus's pictures of women with intellectual disability "remarkable" and "intriguing." - Jed Perl felt that Arbus was "master of the highfalutin creep-out" and that her photographs were "an emotional tease" in a 2003 critique.
- Barbara O'Brien in a 2004 review of the exhibition "Diane Arbus: Family Albums" found her and August SanderAugust SanderAugust Sander was a German portrait and documentary photographer. Sander's first book Face of our Time was published in 1929...
's work "filled with life and energy." - Peter SchjeldahlPeter SchjeldahlPeter Schjeldahl, , is an American art critic, poet, and educator.Schjeldahl was born in Fargo, North Dakota. He grew up in small towns throughout Minnesota, and attended Carleton College and The New School...
, while claiming in 2005 that "no other photographer has been more controversial", also felt that her work was "revolutionary." - Brian SewellBrian SewellBrian Sewell is an English art critic and media personality. He writes for the London Evening Standard and is noted for artistic conservatism and his acerbic view of the Turner Prize and conceptual art...
dismissed Arbus's work in 2005 as unremarkable and as having gained prominence partly because of her suicide, but as "worth a second glance." - Ken JohnsonKen Johnson (art critic)Ken Johnson is an American art critic who lives in New York. Johnson is a writer for the arts pages of The New York Times, where he covers gallery and museum exhibits....
, reviewing a show of Arbus's lesser-known works in 2005, likened Arbus's story-telling ability to that of writer Flannery O'ConnorFlannery O'ConnorMary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
. - Leo Rubinfien in 2005 compared Arbus to Franz KafkaFranz KafkaFranz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
and Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
in exploring absurdity and fatalism. - Stephanie Zacharek wrote in 2006 "...when I look at her pictures, I see not a gift for capturing whatever life is there, but a desire to confirm her own suspicions about humanity's dullness, stupidity and ugliness."
- Wayne KoestenbaumWayne KoestenbaumWayne Koestenbaum is an American poet and cultural critic. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University...
asked in 2007 whether Arbus's photographs humiliate the subjects or the viewers.
Arbus's subjects and their relatives also have differing views:
- The father of the twins pictured in "Identical Twins, Roselle, N.J. 1967" felt that the photograph "was the worst likeness" of the girls he had ever seen.
- Anderson Cooper considers Arbus's photograph of him as an infant "great."
- Writer Germaine GreerGermaine GreerGermaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
, who was the subject of an Arbus photograph in 1971, criticized it as an "undeniably bad picture" and Arbus's work in general as unoriginal and focusing on "mere human imperfection and self-delusion." - A taxi driver in New York who was the subject of the photograph "Boy With a Straw Hat..." reportedly said to Arbus about the photograph, without knowing her identity, "Picture of me! What a thrill! Wish I knew who the photographer was. Like to thank him."
One study published in 1985 examined the opinions of 18 women viewing 8 Arbus photographs. The subjects tended to agree with statements based on Arbus's own words such as "These photographs show the gap between intention and effect" and tended to disagree with statements based on critics' views of Arbus such as "These photographs show the world only as a meaningless place of ugliness, horror and misery."
Notable solo exhibitions
- 1972 Diane Arbus Portfolio: 10 Photos. Venice Biennale.
- 1972–1975 Diane Arbus (125 photographs, curated by John Szarkowski). Museum of Modern Art, New York; Baltimore; Worcester Art MuseumWorcester Art MuseumThe Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 35,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day, representing cultures from all over the world. The WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and is the second largest art museum in New England...
, Massachusetts; Museum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoMuseum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoThe 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...
; Walker Art CenterWalker Art CenterThe Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Minneapolis; National Gallery of CanadaNational Gallery of CanadaThe National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
, Ottawa; Detroit Institute of ArtsDetroit Institute of ArtsThe Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
; Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Texas; New Orleans Museum of ArtNew Orleans Museum of ArtThe New Orleans Museum of Art is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the "Canal Street - City Park" streetcar line...
; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film ArchiveBerkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film ArchiveThe Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is associated with the University of California at Berkeley. The director is Lawrence Rinder who was appointed in 2008.-Collection:...
, California; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Florida Center for the Arts, University of South Florida, Tampa; and Krannert Art MuseumKrannert Art MuseumThe Krannert Art Museum is a museum of art at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, USA. It is the second-largest museum in Illinois, with of space devoted to all periods of art, from ancient Egyptian to contemporary photography...
, University of Illinois, Champaign. - 1973-79 Diane Arbus: Retrospective (118 photographs, curated by Doon Arbus and Marvin Israel). Seibu Museum, Tokyo; Hayward Gallery, London; Ikon GalleryIkon GalleryThe Ikon Gallery is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. The gallery's current director is Jonathan Watkins.Ikon was set up to...
, Birmingham, England; Scottish Arts CouncilScottish Arts CouncilThe Scottish Arts Council is a Scottish public body that distributes funding from the Scottish Government, and is the leading national organisation for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland...
, Edinburgh, Scotland; Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Van Gogh MuseumVan Gogh MuseumThe Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:...
, Amsterdam; Lenbachhaus Städtische Galerie, Munich, Germany; Von der Heydt MuseumVon der Heydt MuseumVon der Heydt Museum is a museum in Wuppertal, Germany.The Von der Heydt Museum includes works by 19th and 20th century artists. The first of Pablo Picasso’s works that ever appeared in public was displayed here.-External links:*...
, Wuppertal, Germany; Frankfurter KunstvereinFrankfurter KunstvereinThe Frankfurt Art Association is an art museum founded in 1829 by a group of influential citizen of the city of Frankfurt, Germany. The aim of the institution is to support the arts in the city, which was an important center of trade and business...
; 14 galleries and museums in Australia; and 7 galleries and museums in New Zealand. - 1980 Diane Arbus: Vintage Unpublished Photographs. Robert Miller Gallery, New York.
- 1984–1987 Diane Arbus: Magazine Work 1960–1971. Spencer Museum of ArtSpencer Museum of ArtThe Spencer Museum of Art, or SMA, is an art museum on the campus of University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. While admission is free, donations are accepted. Also located inside the Spencer Museum of Art are the Kress Foundation Department of Art History, and the Murphy Library of Art &...
, Lawrence, Kansas; Minneapolis Institute of ArtsMinneapolis Institute of ArtsThe Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a fine art museum located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a campus that covers nearly 8 acres , formerly Morrison Park...
, Minneapolis; University of Kentucky Art MuseumUniversity of Kentucky Art MuseumThe University of Kentucky Art Museum is an art museum in Lexington, Kentucky. The collection includes European and American artwork ranging from Old Masters to contemporary, as well as a selection of Non-Western objects...
, Lexington; University Art Museum, California State University, Long BeachCalifornia State University, Long BeachCalifornia State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
; Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at PurchaseState University of New York at PurchasePurchase College, State University of New York, is a public four-year college located in Purchase, New York, United States. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York system...
; Wellesley College Museum, Massachusetts; and Philadelphia Museum of ArtPhiladelphia Museum of ArtThe Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
. - 1986 Seattle Art MuseumSeattle Art MuseumThe 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...
. - 1991 Diane Arbus: Photographs. Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago.
- 1991 Diane Arbus. Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto.
- 1992 Diane Arbus: the Untitled Series, 1970–1971. Jan Kesner GalleryJan Kesner GalleryThe Jan Kesner Gallery is an influential fine art photography gallery in Los Angeles, California. The Gallery has the distinction of being the first woman-owned photography gallery in Los Angeles when it was established in 1987...
, Los Angeles. - 1995 The Movies: Photographs from 1956 to 1958. Robert Miller Gallery, New York.
- 1997 Diane Arbus: Women. Photology Gallery, London.
- 2003–2006 Diane Arbus: Revelations. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles County Museum of ArtThe Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York; Museum FolkwangMuseum FolkwangMuseum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th and 20th century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patron Karl Ernst Osthaus in Hagen, founded in 1901.The term...
, Essen, Germany; Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, London; Fondacion La Caixa, Barcelona; and Walker Art CenterWalker Art CenterThe Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Minneapolis. - 2004–2005 Diane Arbus: Family Albums. Mount Holyoke College Art MuseumMount Holyoke College Art MuseumThe Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in South Hadley, Massachusetts is located on the Mount Holyoke College campus and is a member of Museums10. It is one of the oldest "teaching museums" in the country, "dedicated to providing firsthand experience with works of significant aesthetic and...
, South Hadley, Massachusetts; Grey Art Gallery, New York; Portland Museum of ArtPortland Museum of ArtThe Portland Museum of Art is an art museum in Portland, Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882, it is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District, and is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S...
, Maine; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas; and Portland Art MuseumPortland Art MuseumThe Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it the oldest art museum on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the United States. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum became one of the twenty-five largest art museums in...
, Oregon. - 2005 Diane Arbus: Other Faces Other Rooms. Robert Miller Gallery, New York.
- 2007 Something Was There: Early Work by Diane Arbus. Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.
- 2008–2009 Diane Arbus, a Printed Retrospective, 1960–1971. Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; and Centre Régional de la Photographie Nord Pas-de-Calais, Douchy-les-Mines, France.
- 2009 Diane Arbus. Timothy Taylor GalleryTimothy Taylor GalleryThe Timothy Taylor Gallery is a modern and contemporary art gallery in Mayfair, London, owned and founded by Timothy Taylor. The gallery represents a variety of modern and contemporary artists, selling original and editioned artworks across many different media.-History:The gallery was founded in...
, London. - 2009–2010 Artist Rooms: Diane Arbus. National Museum CardiffNational Museum CardiffNational Museum Cardiff is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales...
, Wales; and Dean GalleryDean GalleryThe Dean Gallery is an art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is part of the National Galleries of Scotland. It was opened in 1999, opposite the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, which is its sister gallery. As the result of a rebranding exercise in 2011, the buildings have now been...
, Edinburgh, Scotland. - 2010 Diane Arbus: Christ in a Lobby and Other Unknown or Almost Known Works. Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.
Books
- Arbus, Diane. Diane Arbus. Millerton, New York: Aperture, 1972. ISBN 0912334401. (Reprinted by Aperture in 1997 as "25th anniversary edition", ISBN 0893816949.)
- Arbus, Diane, Thomas W. Southall, Doon Arbus, and Marvin Israel. Diane Arbus Magazine Work. Millerton, New York: Aperture, 1984. ISBN 0893812331. (Reprinted by Bloomsbury in 1992, ISBN 0747513090.)
- Bosworth, Patricia. Diane Arbus: a Biography. New York: Knopf, 1984. ISBN 0394504046. (Reprinted by Heinemann in 1985, ISBN 0434081507. Reprinted by W.W. Norton in 1995, ISBN 0393312070. Reprinted by W.W. Norton in 2005 with a new afterword, ISBN 0393326616. Reprinted by Vintage in 2005 with a new foreword, ISBN 0099470365.)
- Roegiers, Patrick. Diane Arbus, ou, le Rêve du Naufrage. Paris: Chêne, 1985. ISBN 2851083740.
- Arbus, Diane, Doon Arbus, and Yolanda Cuomo. Diane Arbus: Untitled. New York: Aperture, 1995. ISBN 089381623X.
- Lee, Anthony W., and John Pultz. Diane Arbus: Family Albums. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN 0300101465.
- Diane Arbus: Revelations. New York: Random House, 2003. ISBN 0375506209.
- Arbus, Doon, and Diane Arbus. Diane Arbus: the Libraries. San Francisco: Fraenkel Gallery, 2004. ISBN 1881337197.
- Tellgren, Anna. Arbus, Model, Strömholm. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl, 2005. ISBN 3865211437.
- Gibson, Gregory. Hubert's Freaks: the Rare-Book Dealer, the Times Square Talker, and the Lost Photos of Diane Arbus. Orlando: Harcourt, 2008. ISBN 9780151012336.
Book chapters
- Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green. Notable American Women: the Modern Period: a Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980. ISBN 0674627334.
- Rose, Phyllis, editor. Writing of Women: Essays in a Renaissance. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1985. ISBN 0819551317.
- Lord, Catherine. "What Becomes a Legend Most: the Short, Sad Career of Diane Arbus." In: The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography edited by Richard Bolton. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1989. ISBN 0262022885.
- Bunnell, Peter C. Degrees of Guidance: Essays on Twentieth-Century American Photography. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0521327512.
- Shloss, Carol. "Off the (W)rack : Fashion and Pain in the Work of Diane Arbus." In: On Fashion edited by Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1994. ISBN 0813520320.
- Ashby, Ruth, and Deborah Gore Ohrn. Herstory: Women who Changed the World. New York: Viking, 1995. ISBN 0670854344.
- Felder, Deborah G. The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time: a Ranking Past and Present. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, 1996. ISBN 0806517263.
- "Diane Arbus and the Demon Lover." In: Kavaler-Adler, Susan. The Creative Mystique: from Red Shoes Frenzy to Love and Creativity. New York: Routledge, 1996. Pages 167-172. ISBN 0415914124.
- Gaze, Delia, editor. Dictionary of Women Artists. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997. ISBN 1884964214.
- Stepan, Peter. Icons of Photography: the 20th Century. New York: Prestel, 1999. ISBN 3791320017.
- Coleman, A.D. "Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand at Century's End." In: The Social Scene: the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Photography Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, edited by Max Kozloff. Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2000. ISBN 0914357743.
- Naef, Weston J. Photographers of Genius at the Getty. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004. ISBN 0892367482.
- Bunnell, Peter C. Inside the Photograph: Writings on Twentieth-Century Photography. New York: Aperture Foundation, 2006. ISBN 1597110213.
- Davies, David. "Susan Sontag, Diane Arbus and the Ethical Dimensions of Photography." In: Art and Ethical Criticism edited by Garry HagbergGarry L. HagbergGarry L. Hagberg is an author, professor, philosopher, and jazz musician. He currently holds a chair in philosophy at the University of East Anglia....
. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008. ISBN 9781405134835. - Gefter, Philip, Photography After Frank. New York: Aperture Foundation, 2009. ISBN 9781597110952
Journal articles
- Kozloff, Max. "The Uncanny Portrait: Sander, Arbus, Samaras." Artforum, volume 11, number 10, pages 58–66, June 1973.
- Jeffrey, Ian. "Diane Arbus and the American Grotesque." Photographic Journal, volume 114, number 5, pages 224–29, May 1974.
- Rice, Shelley. "Essential Differences: A Comparison of the Portraits of Lisette Model and Diane Arbus." Artforum, volume 18, number 9, pages 66–71, May 1980.
- Bedient, Calvin. "The Hostile Camera: Diane Arbus." Art in America, volume 73, number 1, pages 11–12, January 1985.
- Hulick, Diana Emery. "Diane Arbus's Women and Transvestites: Separate Selves." History of Photography, volume 16, number 1, pages 34–39, Spring 1992.
- Warburton, Nigel. "Diane Arbus and Erving Goffman: the Presentation of Self." History of Photography, volume 16, number 4, pages 401–404, Winter 1992.
- Jeffrey, Ian. "Diane Arbus and the Past: when She Was Good." History of Photography, volume 19, number 2, pages 95–99, Summer 1995.
- Hulick, Diana Emery. "Diane Arbus's Expressive Methods." History of Photography, volume 19, number 2, pages 107-116, Summer 1995.
- McPherson, Heather. "Diane Arbus's Grotesque ‘Human Comedy.’" History of Photography, volume 19, number 2, pages 117–120, Summer 1995.
- Alexander, M. Darsie. "Diane Arbus: a Theatre of Ambiguity." History of Photography, volume 19, number 2, pages 120-123, Summer 1995.
- Budick, Ariella. "Diane Arbus: Gender and Politics." History of Photography, volume 19, number 2, pages 123-126, Summer 1995.
- Budick, Ariella. "Factory Seconds: Diane Arbus and the Imperfections in Mass Culture." Art Criticism, volume 12, number 2, pages 50–70, 1997.
External links
- Harden, Mark. "Masters of Photography: Diane Arbus."
- Smith, Roberta. "Review/Art; Diane Arbus and Alice Neel, with Attention to the Child." New York Times, May 19, 1989.
- Van Riper, Frank. "Diane Arbus: Revealed and Rediscovered." Washington Post, September 25, 2003.
- Oppenheimer, Daniel. "Diane Arbus." Jewish Virtual Library, 2004.
- Davies, Christie. "Art as Freak Show: Diane Arbus, Revelations at the V&A." London: Social Affairs Unit, December 16, 2005.
- Bissell, Gerhard. "Diane Arbus." Translated from Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, 2006.
- Austin, Hillary Mac. "Diane Arbus." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, March 1, 2009.
- Timothy Taylor Gallery. "Exhibitions. Diane Arbus 20 May - 27 June 2009."