PHOTO:Diane Arbus-In The Beginning
The exhibition “Diane Arbus: In The Beginning” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), considers the first seven years of the photographer’s career, from 1956 to 1962. Bringing together 100 photographs from this formative period, many on display for the first time, the exhibition offers fresh insights into the distinctive vision of this iconic American photographer.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: SFMOMA Archive
A lifelong New Yorker, Diane Arbus found the city and its citizens an endlessly rich subject for her art. Working in Times Square, the Lower East Side and Coney Island, she made some of the most powerful portraits of the 20th Century. This exhibition highlights her early and enduring interest in the subject matter that would come to define her as an artist. It also reveals the artist’s evolution, Diane Arbus was using a 35-mm camera then, which didn’t give the larger, more precise portrait images of the Rolleiflex camera she would use later. But the photographs are not the product of a junior-grade Arbus. Most of these photographs, all printed by Arbus, were not displayed until last year at the Metropolitan Museum. Primarily depicting New York City more than half a century ago, they show a lost world of movie, theater ushers in elaborate uniforms and women wearing dressy little hats on the bus. Although this period was exceptionally fruitful, with nearly half the photographs that Arbus printed during her lifetime were produced during these years , the work has remained little known. It was only after her death that much of it was brought to light. The photographs, many just 15 x 25 cm in size, are arranged in groups of three and four in five galleries, including many lesser-known published works, including “Lady on a bus, N.Y.C.” (1957), “Boy stepping off the curb, N.Y.C.” (1957–58), “The Backwards Man in his hotel room, N.Y.C.” (1961) and “Jack Dracula at a bar, New London, Conn.“ (1961). It also highlights previously unknown additions to her body of work, including “Taxicab driver at the wheel with two passengers, N.Y.C.” (1956), “Woman with white gloves and a pocket book, N.Y.C.” (1956) and “Man in hat, trunks, socks and shoes, Coney Island, N.Y.” (1960). The sixth gallery presents nine larger prints, about 35 cm square, from Arbus’ 1970-1971 series “A Box of 10 Photographs”. This set reflects the full range of her career, and includes her best known images, such as the grimacing “Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C” (1962) and “Boy with a straw hat waiting to march in a pro-war parade, N.Y.C.” (1967). The exhibition is complemented by a gallery featuring works by artists Arbus admired as well as by her contemporaries in New York including: Walker Evans, Louis Faurer, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, William Klein, Helen Levitt, Lisette Model, August Sander, Weegee and Garry Winogrand, all drawn from SFMOMA’s photography collection.
Info: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street San Francisco, Duration: 21/1-30/4/17, Dasys & Hours: Thu 10:00-21:00, Fri-Tue 10:00-17:00, www.sfmoma.org
