Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of 45 photographs by Diane Arbus, curated by acclaimed contemporary artist Carrie Mae Weems. A long-time admirer of Arbus’s work, Weems has selected images spanning Arbus’s fifteen-year career, from 1956 until her death in 1971.
Girl and boy, Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965, 1965
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Girl and boy, Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965, 1965
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Diane ArbusGirl and boy, Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965
1965
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
“There are and have been and will be an infinite number of things on earth: individuals all different, all wanting different things, all knowing different things, all loving different things, all looking different. Everything that has been on earth has been different from any other thing. That is what I love: the differentness, the uniqueness of all things and the importance of life….I see something that seems wonderful; I see the divineness in ordinary things.”
—Diane Arbus in a high-school essay on Plato, 1939
A couple at a dance, N.Y.C., 1960
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
A couple at a dance, N.Y.C., 1960
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Diane ArbusA couple at a dance, N.Y.C.
1960
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Puerto Rican family on the beach, Coney Island, N.Y. 1963, 1963
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Puerto Rican family on the beach, Coney Island, N.Y. 1963, 1963
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Diane ArbusPuerto Rican family on the beach, Coney Island, N.Y. 1963
1963
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Peace marchers, N.J. 1962, 1962
gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches (sheet) [40.6 x 50.8 cm]
Peace marchers, N.J. 1962, 1962
gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches (sheet) [40.6 x 50.8 cm]
Diane ArbusPeace marchers, N.J. 1962
1962
gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches (sheet) [40.6 x 50.8 cm]
“I want to photograph the considerable ceremonies of our present because we tend while living here and now to perceive only what is random and barren and formless about it. While we regret that the present is not like the past and despair of its ever becoming the future, its innumerable inscrutable habits lie in wait for their meaning. I want to gather them, like somebody’s grandmother putting up preserves, because they will have been so beautiful…”
—Diane Arbus in her Guggenheim Fellowship application, 1963
Woman at a counter smoking, N.Y.C. 1962, printed later
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Woman at a counter smoking, N.Y.C. 1962, printed later
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Diane ArbusWoman at a counter smoking, N.Y.C. 1962
printed later
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Kenneth Hall, the new Mr. New York City, at a physique contest, N.Y.C. 1959, 1959
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Kenneth Hall, the new Mr. New York City, at a physique contest, N.Y.C. 1959, 1959
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Diane ArbusKenneth Hall, the new Mr. New York City, at a physique contest, N.Y.C. 1959
1959
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Label typed by Diane Arbus on the back of “Kenneth Hall, the new Mr. New York City, at a physique contest, N.Y.C., 1959”
Label typed by Diane Arbus on the back of “Kenneth Hall, the new Mr. New York City, at a physique contest, N.Y.C., 1959”
Female Impersonators, 1960
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (each sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Female Impersonators, 1960
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (each sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Female impersonator gazing at herself in a mirror with one arm raised, N.Y.C. 1960, 1960
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Seated female impersonator with arms crossed on her bare chest, N.Y.C. 1960, 1960
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Female impersonator primping, N.Y.C. 1960, 1960
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Diane ArbusFemale Impersonators
1960
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (each sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Charles Atlas seated in his Palm Beach home, Fla. 1969, printed later
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Charles Atlas seated in his Palm Beach home, Fla. 1969, printed later
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Diane ArbusCharles Atlas seated in his Palm Beach home, Fla. 1969
printed later
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
‘But ladies, I am 76 years old.’
The World’s Most Perfectly Developed Man’ now lives among the aged in Florida. But age, to Charles Atlas, does not mean being reduced to a seven-stone weakling again.’
—Headline of article by Philip Norman in Sunday Times Magazine (London), accompanied by photographs by Diane Arbus, October 19, 1969.
Black boy, Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965, 1965
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Black boy, Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965, 1965
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Diane ArbusBlack boy, Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965
1965
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Three images in Carrie Mae Weems’s selection can be seen in this installation view of the landmark 1967 exhibition “New Documents” curated by John Szarkowski at MoMA: “A young man and his pregnant wife in Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965;” “Black boy, Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965;” and “Nudist lady with swan sunglasses, Pa. 1965.”
Three images in Carrie Mae Weems’s selection can be seen in this installation view of the landmark 1967 exhibition “New Documents” curated by John Szarkowski at MoMA: “A young man and his pregnant wife in Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965;” “Black boy, Washington Square Park, N.Y.C. 1965;” and “Nudist lady with swan sunglasses, Pa. 1965.”
Woman making a kissy face, Sammy’s Bowery Follies, N.Y.C. 1958, 1958
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Woman making a kissy face, Sammy’s Bowery Follies, N.Y.C. 1958, 1958
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Diane ArbusWoman making a kissy face, Sammy’s Bowery Follies, N.Y.C. 1958
1958
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
“For me the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture. And more complicated.”
Diane Arbus
Woman with eyeliner, N.Y.C. 1967, 1967
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Woman with eyeliner, N.Y.C. 1967, 1967
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Diane ArbusWoman with eyeliner, N.Y.C. 1967
1967
gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches (sheet) [50.8 x 40.6 cm]
Teenager with a baseball bat, N.Y.C., 1962
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Teenager with a baseball bat, N.Y.C., 1962
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Diane ArbusTeenager with a baseball bat, N.Y.C.
1962
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Late party in a hotel room, N.Y.C. 1963, 1963
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Late party in a hotel room, N.Y.C. 1963, 1963
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Diane ArbusLate party in a hotel room, N.Y.C. 1963
1963
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
“I don’t press the shutter. The image does, and it’s like being gently clobbered.”
Diane Arbus
Uneeda counter woman at a cash register, N.Y.C., 1962
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Uneeda counter woman at a cash register, N.Y.C., 1962
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
Diane ArbusUneeda counter woman at a cash register, N.Y.C.
1962
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]
An Empty Movie Theater, N.Y.C., 1971
gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches (sheet) [40.6 x 50.8 cm]
An Empty Movie Theater, N.Y.C., 1971
gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches (sheet) [40.6 x 50.8 cm]
Diane ArbusAn Empty Movie Theater, N.Y.C.
1971
gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches (sheet) [40.6 x 50.8 cm]