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BIOGRAPHY

 

American photographer Diane Arbus is best known for portraits of New York subjects: families, children, tranvestites, circus performers, eccentrics, nudists, little people, and giants. Born Diane Nemerov, she partnered with her husband Allan Arbus as a fashion photographer in the 1940s and published portraits and photographic essays in the 1950s and 1960s in Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, and other magazines. The development of her mature style of portraiture came about through work with a square format camera beginning in 1962. Riveting and controversial, yet intimately familiar, her images marry formalism and storytelling to great effect.

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

EXHIBITIONS

PUBLICATIONS

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 

2016

 

 

2014

 

 

 

2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011-12

 

 

2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008-09

 

 

 

2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2003-06

 

 

 

 

 

2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2004-05

 

 

 

2002-05

 

2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2003-04

 

 

2003

 

 

 

 

2002

 

2001-02

 

2001

 

 

 

 

 

2000-01

 

2000

 

1997

 

1996-97

 

1996

 

1995

 

1992

 

1991

 

 

1989

 

1987

 

1984-85

 

1980

 

1977

 

1972

 

1971

 

 

1969

 

 

 

 

 

1967

 

1965

 

 

 

1955

 

Outsiders: American Photography and Film 1950 - 1980, curated by Jim Shedden and Sophie Hackett, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

 

Masterpieces & Curiosities: Diane Arbus's Jewish Giant, curated by Daniel S. Palmer, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

Portraits of America: Diane Arbus | Cady Noland, Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY

 

Dark Blue The Water as Protagonist, Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI

Une Affaire De Famille, La Photographie Dans Les Collections De Stephane, Rodolphe Et Sebastien Janssen, Museé de la photographie de Charleroi, Charleroi

Light Sensitive, Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC

The Time is Now, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA

The Unphotographable, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA

 

September 11, P.S.1. MoMa, New York, USA

Diane Arbus, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Germany (solo)

Diane Arbus, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany (solo)

Another story. 1000 Photographs from the Moderna Museet Collection, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Diane Arbus: Affinities, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK (solo)

Through the Looking Glass, me Collectors Room, Berlin, Germany

 

PHOTOGRAPHY CALLING! Fotografie und Gegenwart, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hannover, Germany

 

Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Artists Rooms, Tate Modern, London, GB (solo)

Diane Arbus Retrospective, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France; Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Zurich, Swtizerland; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; FOAM, Amsterdam, Holland (solo)

Diane Arbus: People and Other Singularities, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, USA (solo)

Diane Arbus, Peder Lund, Oslo, Norway (solo)

 

75 Years of Looking Forward: Focus on Artists, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

Private Eyes, la Colección de Laurence Miller, Sala Municipal de San Benito, Valladolid, Spain

Picturing New York: Photographs from The Museum of Modern Art, IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

The Sum of Myself: Photographic Self-Portraits from the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art / LACMA, Los Angeles

Masters of Photography, Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerpen, Belgium

Face to Face: 150 Years of Photographic Portraiture, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix and CCP Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, USA

elles@centrepompidou, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Diane Arbus: Christ in a lobby and Other Unknown or Almost Known Works, selected by Robert Gober, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)

Diane Arbus: In the Absence of Others, Cheim & Reid, New York, NY (solo)

 

Diane Arbus, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK (solo)

The White Under The Red, Galerie Metro, Berlin, Germany

Seventies, le choc de la photographie américaine, Bibliothèque National de France, Paris, France

The Fallen Angels, Watarium Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokio, Japan

1968. Die große Unschuld, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

BIG CITY, Wien Museum, Vienna, Austria

Sander's Children, Danziger Projects, New York

Street & Studio, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

Artist Rooms: Diane Arbus, National Museum, Cardiff, UK (solo)

The Female Gaze: Women Look at Women, Cheim & Read, New York, NY

New at the Morgan: Acquisitions Since 2004, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY

 

Le Choc de la Photographie Americaine, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, France

Diane Arbus: A Printed Retrospective, 1960-1971, Curated by Pierre Leguillon, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France (solo)

 

Arbus, Avedon, Sander, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY

People, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY

Times Square, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY

Diane Arbus, Neil Selkirk, Camera Work, Berlin, Germany

Female Trouble, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany

Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography, Tate Modern, London

New York at Night: Photographs from the Collection, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York

 

Diane Arbus - Helen Levitt: A Conversation, Laurence Miller Gallery, New York

NEW YORK, NY, Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerpen, Belgium

Americans, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria

June Bride, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY

All the More Real, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

Second View, Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg, Germany

Something Was There: Early Work by Diane Arbus, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)

Diane Arbus, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany (solo)

A Fine Collection, A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans, LA (solo)

 

Eye of the Beholder: Photographs from the Collection of Richard Avedon, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY; Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Recent Acquisitions: New York Street Photography from the 1960s and 1970s, (16 Diane Arbus Coney Island photographs) New York Public Library, New York, NY

Das Achte Feld/The Eight Square, Museum Ludwig Cologne, Germany

The Construction of the Other, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium

Biennale Internazionale di Fotografia di Brescia, Italy

The Street: Pioneers of 20th-Century Photography, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The photographs of Diane Arbus, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Australia (solo)

 

Diane Arbus: Revelations, (200 photographs and supplementary ephemera), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; Fundació la Caixa, Barcelona, Spain; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (solo)

 

Photographing the Museum, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, NY

Bilanz in zwei Akten, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Family Albums, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, USA / Portland Art Museum, Portland, USA(solo)

Set Up: Recent Acquisitions in Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Reinstallation of The Museum of Modern Art's Collection, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Diane Arbus: Other Faces, Other Rooms, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

Diane Arbus, Gallery Koyanagi, Portland, OR (solo)

 

Diane Arbus: Family Albums, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA; Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY; Portland Art Museum, Portland, ME; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS (solo)

 

Eye to Eye, Groninger Museum, Holland, The Netherlands

 

Ghost Stories: The Disembodied Spirit, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX

Menschenbilder, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

Photographers of Genius, Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA

Family Albums, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, USA / Grey Art Gallery, New York University (solo)

Female Identities? Künstlerinnen der Sammlung Goetz, Weserburg I Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany

Photography Until Now; Museum of Modern Art, New York (auch im Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio)

On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. und Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (auch im Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

 

Cruel and Tender, Tate Modern, London; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

A Clear Vision, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany

 

Gogh Modern, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Pictures from Within, Whitney Museum, New York, NY

Flesh Tones, Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY

Diane Arbus, De Hallen, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Niederlande 1972 (solo)

 

American Standard: (Para) Normality and Everyday Life, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY

 

J. Johnson Gallery, Jacksonville, FL

 

Voice, Image, Gesture: Selections from The Jewish Museum’s Collection, 1945 – 2000, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

Homage to the Square: Picturing Washington Square, 1890-1865, Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, NY

Diane Arbus: A Box of Ten Photographs, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)

 

Diane Arbus: Untitled 1969-1971, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany (solo)

 

Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium (solo)

 

Diane Arbus: Women, Galleria Photology, Milan, Italy (solo)

 

Diane Arbus: Women, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

 

Untitled: Diane Arbus, Pace Wildenstein, Los Angeles, CA (solo)

 

The Movies: Photographs from 1956 to 1958, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

 

Diane Arbus: Untitled 1970-71, Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)

 

Diane Arbus: Photographs, Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago, IL (solo)

Diane Arbus: Untitled 1970-71, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

 

Alice Neel and Diane Arbus: Children, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (two-person)

 

Diane Arbus: Early Works 1956-1962, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

 

Diane Arbus: Portraits on Assignment, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

 

Diane Arbus: Vintage Unpublished Photographs, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (solo)

 

Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960; Museum of Modern Art; New York

 

Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York (solo)

 

Contemporary Photographs I; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Venice Biennale, Italy

 

Thirteen Photographers; Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York

Human Concern/Personal Torment: The Grotesque in American Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

New Photography U.S.A., Museum of Modern Art, New York

10 Photographers; U.S. Pavilion, Japan World Exhibition, Osaka, Japan

 

New Documents: Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand; Museum of Modern Art; New York

 

Recent Acquisitions: Photography; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; School of Fine Arts, University of Wisconsin

Invitational Exhibition: 10 American Photographers Milwaukee

 

The Family of Man (with Allan Arbus), Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York

FAIF Collection, Zurich, Switzerland

Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain

Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany

Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence

Sweet Briar College Art Gallery

The Progressive Art Collection, Mayfield Village

Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown

Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto, Canada

Yokohama Museum of Art

John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA

Milwaukee Art Museum, USA

Moderna Museet Malmö, Sweden

Moderna Museet Stockholm, Sweden

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA

Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg / Florida, Russia / USA

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, USA

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan

New Orleans Museum of Art, USA

Akron Art Museum

BA-CA Kunstforum, Vienna, Austria

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham / Alabama, UK / USA

Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, USA

Cleveland Museum of Art, USA

Davison Art Center, Middletown

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie

Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge / MA, USA

International Center of Photography, New York, USA

IVAM Valencia, Spain

Public Collections

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

 

 

2012

 

 

2011

 

 

2005

 

2003

 

 

 

1995

 

1984

 

 

1972

 

Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph: Fortieth-Anniversary Edition by Marvin Israel, Doon Arbus and Diane Arbus

 

Diane Arbus – Untitled, Ausst.Kat., Schirmer Mosel: München, 2011

Photography calling!, Ausst.Kat., Steidl: Göttingen, 2011

 

Diane Arbus: The Libraries, 2005 (ed. by Doon Arbus)

 

Diane Arbus: Familiy Album, 2003

Arbus, Diane. Revelations. New York: Random House and Toronto: Random House of Canada Limited

 

Arbus and Yolanda Cuomo, Eds. Untitled. New York: Aperture

 

Arbus, Diane. and Thomas W. Southall. Diane Arbus Magazine Work. Eds. Doon Arbus and Marvin Israel. Millerton. NY: Aperture

 

Arbus, Diane. Diane Arbus. Eds. Doon Arbus and Marvin Israel

2010 - present

2010 - present