sale of the portfolio inArtforummagazine; only
four sets sold in her lifetime, one to the artist
Jasper Johns.
At the time of her death by suicide in 1971 (she
had suffered from depression throughout her adult
life), Arbus’s photography was not widely exhib-
ited in museums and galleries, although it would
prove to be instrumental in the artistic reexamina-
tion of photography within American museums,
where the medium would assume a sure and stable
place during Szarkowski’s tenure. Although Arbus
had serious reservations about displaying her pic-
tures in museum exhibitions, where she feared her
intentions might be misunderstood, her work has
retained a vital and major place within the history
of photography.
LYNNM. Somers-DavisSeealso:DocumentaryPhotography;Model,Lisette;
Street Photography; Szarkowski, John; Winogrand,
Garry
Biography
Born Diane Nemerov, New York City, March 14, 1923 to
Gertrude and David Nemerov. Her wealthy family of
Russian-Jewish descent owned Russek’s, a fashionable
Fifth Avenue department store. Married Allan Arbus
against parents’ wishes in 1941. Brother was Howard
Nemerov, Pulitzer-prize winning poet and U.S. Poet
Laureate in 1988. Daughter Doon Arbus born 1945;
daughter Amy Arbus born in 1954. With husband
opened fashion photography studio (‘‘Diane and Allan
Arbus’’), 1946. Attended first photography course in
mid-1950s with Alexey Brodovitch at New School for
Social Research, New York City; studied with Lisette
Model at the New School, 1956–1958. Quit the business
in 1956 to pursue her own work, garnering assignments
forEsquire,Harper’s Bazaar, and the LondonSunday
Times Magazine. The Arbuses separated amicably, 1959;
that year Diane began keeping notebooks of her writings
with ideas for pictures and other interests. By early 1960s
discovered Hubert’s Museum (flea circus in Times
Square) and Club 82 (a female-impersonator club in
downtown Manhattan); revisited these sites extensively
to photograph. Met Walker Evans through Marvin
Israel, 1962. Received first Guggenheim Fellowship for
American Rites, Manners and Customs, 1963; second
Guggenheim Fellowship for The Interior Landscape,
- Began teaching at Parsons School of Design,
New York City. Included in MoMA exhibitionNew
Documents, 1967. Hired by John Szarkowski at Museum
of Modern Art, New York, to research exhibition on
news photography,From the Picture Press, 1969–1970.
Produced with Marvin Israel a limited edition portfolio
of 10 photographs (A Book of Ten Photographs), 1969–
1970; publishedFive Photographs by Diane Arbus,Art-
forum, May 1971. Taught a private master class at West-
beth, the artists’ cooperative housing where she lived, - Died by suicide in her New York City home, July
28, 1971. Subject of posthumous retrospective at
Museum of Modern Art, New York, with accompanying
monographDiane Arbus(1972).Individual Exhibitions
Note: Arbus’s sparse exhibition history and the relative lack
of scholarship on her is due in part to the control The
Estate of Diane Arbus has maintained over her work
including exhibitions and reproductions of it.
1972 Diane Arbus; Museum of Modern Art, New York,
New York, and traveling retrospective
2003 Diane Arbus: Family Albums; Mount Holyoke College
Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts, and traveling
2004 Diane Arbus Revelations; San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art; San Francisco, California; traveling to Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Califor-
nia; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Metropoli-
tan Museum of Art, New York, New York; Museum
Folkwang, Essen, Germany; Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, England; and Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis, MinnesotaSelected Group Exhibitions
1955 With Allan Arbus.The Family of Man; Museum of
Modern Art, New York, New York
1965 Recent Acquisitions: Photography; Museum of Mod-
ern Art, New York, New York
Invitational Exhibition: 10 American Photographers; School
of Fine Arts, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1967 New Documents: Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Garry
Winogrand; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
1969 Thirteen Photographers; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn,
New York
Human Concern/Personal Torment: The Grotesque in
American Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New
York, New York
New Photography U.S.A.; Museum of Modern Art,
New York, New York, and traveling
10 Photographers; U.S. Pavilion, Japan World Exhibi-
tion, Osaka, Japan
1971 Contemporary Photographs I; Fogg Art Museum, Har-
vard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1977 Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since
1960 ; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
1989 On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty
Years of Photography; National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C., and Art Institute of Chicago, Chi-
cago, Illinois, and traveling to Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Photography Until Now; Museum of Modern Art,
New York, New York, and traveling to the Cleveland
Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
2003 Cruel and Tender: The Real in the Twentieth-Century
Photograph; Tate Modern, London, EnglandSelected Works
Headless Man, N.Y.C., 1961
Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C., 1962
A house on a hill, Hollywood, California, 1962
The Junior Interstate Ballroom Dance Champions, Yonkers,
N.Y., 1963ARBUS, DIANE