Diane Arbus Photographs
1 Feb 1992 – 3 May 1992
John Bleaney, Mark Boxshall, Diane Arbus, c.1985, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Gift of Mark Dodson, 2008.
About
Diane Arbus took photographs that are confrontational and controversial. She had the capacity to reveal tragedy and absurdity in the circumstances of peoples' lives. Her subjects were people drawn both from the edges of society and from middle class and affluent backgrounds similar to her own.
Born in 1923, into a middle-class New York family, Arbus began her career working in fashion photography with her husband, Allan Arbus. She ceased fashion work in 1956 and soon after studied photography under Lisette Model at the New School for Social Research. Her subsequent photographs were predominantly portraits. During the 1960s her photographs were published in magazines such as Harper's Bazaar and Esquire; she made little distinction between magazine assignments and private work. The importance of Arbus's work was recognised during the time of her short career; she was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1963 and 1966, and her photographs were included in the New Documents exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1967. Diane Arbus's photographs have continued to attract audiences and to be critically appraised since she took her own life in 1971.
Kate Davidson
Department of Photography, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1991
Related
Mud Men
Ramesh Nithiyendran
3 Jun 2016 – 26 Feb 2017
William Robinson
A Retrospective
14 Dec 2001 – 10 Mar 2002
Seeing Red
The Art and Science of Infra-red Analysis
17 Nov 2001 – 10 Feb 2002
Silently Stirring
21 Mar 2009 – 8 Jun 2009
Diane Arbus
American Portraits
3 Jun 2016 – 30 Oct 2016
Transparent Things
Expressions in Glass
7 Dec 2001 – 10 Nov 2002
In the Spotlight
Anton Bruehl photographs 1920s–1950s
23 Oct 2010 – 6 Feb 2011
The Birth of the Modern Poster
10 Feb – 13 May 2007
Joy Hester and Friends
1 Sep – 28 Oct 2001
3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial: Defying Empire
26 May – 10 Sep 2017
