ARTISTS
Diane Arbus: In the Beginning
This landmark exhibition will feature more than 100 photographs that together redefine Diane Arbus (American, 1923鈥�1971), one of the most influential and provocative artists of the 20th century. It will focus on the first seven years of her career, from 1956 to 1962, the period in which she developed the idiosyncratic style and approach for which she has been recognized praised, criticized, and copied the world over.
Arbus made most of her photographs in New York City, where she lived and died, and where she worked in locations such as Times Square, the Lower East Side, and Coney Island. Her photographs of children and eccentrics, couples and circus performers, female impersonators and Fifth Avenue pedestrians are among the most intimate and surprising images of the era.
The majority of the photographs in the exhibition have never before been seen and are part of the Museum's Diane Arbus Archive, acquired in 2007 by gift and promised gift from the artist's daughters, Doon Arbus and Amy Arbus. It was only when the archive came to The Met that this remarkable early work came to be fully explored. Arbus's creative life in photography after 1962 is well documented and already the stuff of legend; now, for the first time, we can properly examine its origins.
Recommended for you
This landmark exhibition will feature more than 100 photographs that together redefine Diane Arbus (American, 1923鈥�1971), one of the most influential and provocative artists of the 20th century. It will focus on the first seven years of her career, from 1956 to 1962, the period in which she developed the idiosyncratic style and approach for which she has been recognized praised, criticized, and copied the world over.
Arbus made most of her photographs in New York City, where she lived and died, and where she worked in locations such as Times Square, the Lower East Side, and Coney Island. Her photographs of children and eccentrics, couples and circus performers, female impersonators and Fifth Avenue pedestrians are among the most intimate and surprising images of the era.
The majority of the photographs in the exhibition have never before been seen and are part of the Museum's Diane Arbus Archive, acquired in 2007 by gift and promised gift from the artist's daughters, Doon Arbus and Amy Arbus. It was only when the archive came to The Met that this remarkable early work came to be fully explored. Arbus's creative life in photography after 1962 is well documented and already the stuff of legend; now, for the first time, we can properly examine its origins.
Artists on show
Contact details
Related articles
This summer, the Met Breuer will be showcasing the artist's early work, much of it never before published or exhibited. Here is a guide from the show's curator.
With an exhibition of her work opening at the Met Breuer and a startling new biography out now, the late street photographer is having a moment.
A new exhibition of the photographer鈥檚 early work provides clues to where she found her subject matter and how she honed her confrontational style.
Bathers at the beach, a newspaper being swept along a city street, a puddle lying dark and inert on a sidewalk at night: A new exhibit reveals how the great photographer found inspiration in the Big Apple.
