Diane ARBUS — a child with a live grenade in her hands
Disclaimer: The information provided in this episode comes from multiple sources and is not my scientific studies or discoveries. Check the references for more details. Thank you!
Welcome to HerArt podcast, a project for art lovers, especially art created by women. In the last episode, from this season, we will talk about Diane ARBUS, an American photographer and writer noted for photographs of marginalized people, whose normality was perceived by the general populace as ugly or surreal. My name is Nata Andreev and I am going to tell you seven curious facts that you didn’t know about the child with a live grenade in her hands. It will be amazing if you could join me for the sixth session of my project with the National Art Museum, this Sunday, December 23rd. We will discuss art in ancient Rome.
Curious Fact #1
Born into considerable wealth, Arbus suffered all her life from the guilt of privilege. Her mother, Gertrude, was the heir to the family business, Russeks, a prestigious department store on 5th Avenue that sold furs. While Gertrude was detached to the point of cold, her husband, David Nemerov, was strict to the point of bullying.
Curious Fact #2
At the age of 14, Diane met Allan Arbus, a 19-year-old City College student who was employed in the art department at Russeks. It was love at first sight. Her parents disapproved, but this only served to heighten Diane’s resolve to marry him as soon as she came of age. In many ways, Allan represented an escape from all that was restricting and oppressive in her family life.
Curious Fact #3
Lisette Model an Austrian-born documentary photographer, encouraged Arbus to give up commercial work to concentrate on fine-art photography. In 1960 Esquire published Arbus’s first photo-essay, in which she effectively juxtaposed privilege and squalor in New York City. Thereafter she made a living as a freelance photographer and photography instructor.
Curious Fact #4
In 1963 and 1966 Arbus received Guggenheim fellowships to be part of a project titled “American Rites, Manners, and Customs.” During this period she mastered her technique of using a square format, which emphasizes the subject more than the photograph’s composition. She also used flash lighting, which gives her work a sense of theatricality and surrealism.
Curious Fact #5
The subjects that would occupy Diane for much of her career: individuals living on the outskirts of society and “normalcy,” such as nudists, transvestites, dwarfs, and the mentally or physically handicapped. Her own evident intimacy with the extraordinary subjects of her photos resulted in images that engage the sympathy and collusion of the viewer and elicit a strong response. Some critics saw her work as remarkably empathetic to its subjects, while others were disturbed by what they saw as a harsh, voyeuristic look into the lives of the disadvantaged.
Curious Fact #6
Despite her growing popularity, Arbus suffered from severe depression that was possibly inherited, at least in part, from her mother. In July of 1971, she swallowed barbiturates, climbed into a bathtub of water, and slit her wrists at her home in New York City’s Greenwich Village. That same year her work was shown at the Venice Biennale, marking the first time that an American photographer received that distinction.
Curious Fact #7
In 2007 Arbus’s estate gifted her complete archives — including photographic equipment, diary pages, and the negatives of some 7,500 rolls of film — to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Thank you so much for listening to the last episode of HerArt podcast — a project for art lovers, especially art created by women. If you want to follow more of what we do, find us on Facebook and Instagram. I wanted to express my genuine appreciation for each and every one of you, that supported this project. I hope you’ll continue to show love in 2019 as well!
References
The Vanguard Spot | Photography News | Britannica | The New York Times |The Guardian
