Diane Arbus (born in New York in 1923, died in 1971 in New York) is one of the most important artists in documentary style photography. She exhibited her work alongside Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand in the seminal exhibition New Documents at MoMa in 1967. Her extensive body of work includes images of people on the fringes of social acceptance as well as photographs of allegedly “normal” people, which show the cracks in their masks. Arbus touches questions of gender and identity with directness and sensibility at the same time. Her works are often compared to those of August Sander, whose portraits represent similar concerns, albeit in a seemingly more objective manner.
Arbus found most of her subjects in New York, a place that she particularly explored during the 1950s and 1960s. Her “contemporary anthropology” – portraits of couples, children, carnival performers, nudists, middle-class families, transvestites, people on the street – stands as an allegory of postwar America and an exploration of the relationship between appearance and identity, illusion and belief, theater and reality.
For Arbus, photography was a medium that tangled with the facts. Many of her subjects face the camera, implicitly aware of their collaboration in the portrait-making process. In her photographs, the self-conscious encounter between photographer and subject becomes a central drama of the picture.
Diane Arbus’s work has been presented in major international museum exhibitions. In 1972, a year after her death, she was the first American photographer to have her work represented at the Venice Biennale.
Diane Nemerov is born in New York.
Meets Allan Arbus.
During World War II Allan Arbus studies photography at the Signal Corps Photography School in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
He sets up a darkroom at home and teaches his wife what he had learned.
After the war, Diane and Allan Arbus start their careers as fashion photographers.
Marries Allan Arbus.
Begins to study with Lisette Model at the New School for Social Research in New York. Following Model’s advice, she stops doing commercial work and persues her art.
Her photographs are published in Esquire, New York Times Magazine, Sunday Times Magazine (London) ecc.
Separation from Allan Arbus
Receives two Guggenheim Fellowships
Island School of Design in Providence
Group exhibition “New Documents” with Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Portfolio of ten prints for her first limited edition. Commits suicide in Greenwich Village, New York, USA
Diane Arbus: 10 Years, Susquehanna Art Museum, Pennsylvania, USA
Diane Arbus: Constellation, LUMA Arles, Arles, France
Diane Arbus: Photographs, 1956–1971, Museo Louisiana, Humlebæk, Denmark
Diane Arbus. Portraits, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Diane Arbus: In The Beginning, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Diane Arbus: A Box of Ten Photographs, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Artist Rooms: Diane Arbus, Burton Art Gallery & Museum Bideford, UK
Diane Arbus: American Portraits, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Australia
Diane Arbus. In the Beginning, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Diane Arbus. Kirkcaldy Galleries, Kirkcaldy, UK
Diane Arbus, Galerie Nationale de Jeu de Paume, Paris, France; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany and Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Netherlands
Diane Arbus, Artists Rooms, Tate Modern, London, UK
Christ in a Lobby and Other Unknown or Almost Known Works, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
In The Absence of Others, Cheim & Reid, New York
Diane Arbus, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, UK
Rétrospective imprimée, 1960-1971, Centre Regional de la Photographie, Douchy-les-Mines and Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France
Something was There. Early works, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
Diane Arbus, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
A Fine Collection, A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans , Louisiana
Revelations, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
The Photographs of Diane Arbus, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Australia
Revelations, Caixa Forum – Fundació la Caixa, Barcelona , Spain
Revelations, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London , UK
Family Albums, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Revelations, Museum Folkwang, Essen , Germany
Revelations, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Family Albums, Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Other Faces Other Rooms, Robert Miller Gallery, New York
Diane Arbus, Gallery Koyanagi, Portland, Oregon
Revelations, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Family Albums, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Family Albums, Grey Art Gallery, New York University
Diane Arbus, De Hallen, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York
American Photography, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Interpreting America: Photographs From The Collection, Weatherspoon Art Museum, North Carolina, USA
When Images Learned to Speak: Conceptualized Documentary Photography from Astrid Ullens, De Schooten Whettnall’s Collection, Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France
Chronorama: Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century, Museum für Fotografie, Berlin, Germany
Views from Within: Photographs from the Collection, HoMA, Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Modern Women: Modern Vision: Photographs from the Bank of America Collection, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, California, USA
+ collection, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, Portland, Maine, USA
Cities Are For People: Street Photography, 1945-1970, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Missouri, USA
This Is Me, This Is You. The Eva Felten Photography Collection, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany
Modern Women / Modern Vision: Photography from the Bank of America Collection, Taft Museum of Art, Ohio, USA
Like A Good Armchair: Getting Uncomfortable With Modern And Contemporary Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Ohio, USA
House of Photographs: The Kasakoff-Adams Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection, Telfair Museums, Jepson Center, Georgia, USA
Joan Didion: What She Means, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA
MOMAT Collection, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
A Time of Gifts: Six Years of Photographs Given to the Collection, 2016-2022, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA), Santa Barbara | California | USA
New York: 1962 – 1964, The Jewish Museum New York, New York, USA
TOP Collection: The Illumination of Life by Death, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Women’s Work: A Survey Of Female Photographers, Museum of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg, Florida, USA
Resonances. Fundación MAPFRE Collections, KBr Photography Center, Barcelona, Spain
A Female Gaze, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, USA
Cruel Radiance: Photography, 1940s–1960s, The MET, New York, USA
Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection, High Museum of Art, Georgia, USA
Essentials, Zander Galerie, Cologne, Germany
American Photography, Albertina, Vienna, Austria
2020-2021
Vantage Points, Asheville Art Museum, North Carolina, USA
Street. Life. Photography: Seven Decades of Street Photography, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection, The Met, New York
What Will The Neighbours Say?, The Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands
Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, USA
American Pastoral, Gagosian, London (Britannia Street), London, UK
Shape of Light: Defining Photographs from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, New York
We love Photography! 20 years of Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Always Greener: Seeing and Seeking Suburbia—Selections from the Museum’s Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
No Time, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, California
Doing the Document. Photographs from Diane Arbus to Piet Zwart. The Bartenbach Donation, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
[SPACE] Street. Life. Photography. Seven Decades of Street Photography, Triennial of Photography, House of Photography, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany
Real Worlds: Brassaï, Arbus, Goldin, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
THE AMERICAN DREAM – American Realism 1945-2017, Kunsthalle Emden, Germany and Drents Museum, Assen, Netherlands
Another story. 1000 Photographs from the Moderna Museet Collection, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
PHOTOGRAPHY CALLING! Fotografie und Gegenwart, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
September 11, P.S.1., Museum of Modern Art, New York
Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Private Eyes, la Colección de Laurence Miller, Sala Municipal de San Benito, Valladolid, Spain
Picturing New York: Photographs from The Museum of Modern Art, 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, Los Angeles, California
Masters of Photography, Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerps, Belgium
Face to Face: 150 Years of Photographic Portraiture, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix and CCP Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
elles@centrepompidou, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
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, Tokyo, 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
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 , UK
Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, August Sander, Pace / MacGill Gallery, New York
New York at Night: Photographs from the Collection, 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, Antwerp, Belgium
Americans, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Das Achte Feld – Geschlechter, Leben und Begehren in der bildenden Kunst seit 1960, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
In Sight: Recent Additions to the Permanent Collection, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
Biennale Internazionale di Fotografia di Brescia, Italy
The Street: Pioneers of 20th-Century Photography, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Set Up: Recent Acquisitions in Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Reinstallation of The Museum of Modern Art’s Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Female Identities? Künstlerinnen der Sammlung Goetz, Weserburg I Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany
Cruel and Tender: The Real in the Twentieth-Century Photograph, Tate Modern, London , UK and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Menschenbilder, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Photography Until Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York and Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960; Museum of Modern Art, New York
Contemporary Photographs I, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Thirteen Photographers, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
Human Concern / Personal Torment: The Grotesque in American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
ew 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 and School of Fine Arts, University of Wisconsin
Invitational Exhibition: 10 American Photographers Milwaukee
The Family of Man. Museum of Modern Art, New York (with Allan Arbus)
Diane Arbus. Untitled, exh. cat., Schirmer/Mosel Verlag, Munich, Germany
Diane Arbus. Photography Calling!, exh.cat., Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
Doon Arbus (Ed.): Diane Arbus. The Libraries
Diane Arbus. Revelations/Enthüllungen, Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany
Diane Arbus. Familiy Album
Untitled. Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus. Magazine Work
Diane Arbus. An Aperture Monograph, Aperture, New York
Akron Art Museum, Akron
BA-CA Kunstforum, Vienna, Austria
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
Cleveland Museum of Art
Davison Art Center, Middletown
Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie
International Center of Photography, New York
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota
IVAM, Valencia, Spain
KMS Fine Art Group, Baar, Switzerland
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Milwaukee Art Museum
Moderna Museet, Malmö, Denmark
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
New Orleans Museum of Art
Reina Sofía, Madrid
Sammlung Goetz, Munich
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence
Sweet Briar College Art Gallery
The Progressive Art Collection, Mayfield Village
Vancouver Art Gallery
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown
Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto
Yokohama Museum of Art
Zander Galerie
Schönhauser Straße 8
50968 Cologne
Germany
Zander Galerie
6 Rue Jacob
75006 Paris
France