Diane Arbus
Photographs, 1956-1971

May 11 - September 17, 2023

WELCOME TO THE EXHIBITION

Highlighting the artist’s evolution over 15 years, Diane Arbus: Photographs, 1956-1971 presents a sweeping chronological account of Arbus’s career. The exhibition opens with an arresting self‐portrait from 1945 and follows with images from 1956, the year Arbus decided to seriously pursue photography. Early works in 35 mm reveal an artist fascinated by the range of humanity and life as it unfolded on the street, while later works created using a larger format mark her emergence as a mature and compelling artist. Please begin your journey heading left in the gallery, and use the map provided to follow the chronology of the works featured in this exhibition and further described in this gallery guide.

Please note, there is strictly no photography allowed inside the exhibition.

If you have any questions, please feel free to engage with one of our Gallery Attendants or volunteers inside the exhibition.

A series of Diane Arbus publications are available in the Contemporary Calgary gift shop.

NOTE ON THE TITLES

The titles of the photographs are as Arbus gave them in her lifetime, including punctuation, abbreviations, and terms that are no longer currently in use as attitudes around gender, race, ability, and other forms of difference have evolved.

NOTE ON THE PRINTS

Diane Arbus printed her own photographs over the course of her career. After her death, the photographer Neil Selkirk was commissioned to make prints for her 1972 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Other than Arbus herself, he is the only person ever to have printed from her negatives. All photographs in this exhibition were printed by Arbus, unless noted as “printed by Neil Selkirk.”

Diane Arbus: Photographs, 1956-1971 is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario.