Diane Arbus - Photographs Evening & Day New York Wednesday, October 5, 2016 | Phillips

Photographs Evening & Day

New York 5 & 6 October 2016

  • Literature

    Rosenheim, diane arbus: in the beginning, p. 171

  • Catalogue Essay

    “I am full of a sense of promise, like I often have, the feeling of always being at the beginning.”
    -Arbus July 1957

    Seated female impersonator with arms crossed on her bare chest, N.Y.C., 1960 was one from a series of photographs of female impersonators that Diane Arbus began in 1959. Mainly featuring members of the Jewel Box Revue, a touring company who performed in clubs throughout New York City, these images were made backstage, thus capturing the performers as they transition from man to woman and back again.

    This striking and exquisite photograph was printed by Arbus. Another print of this image is in included in the current major retrospective at the Met Breuer, diane arbus: in the beginning, which focuses on her fundamental early work from the years 1956-1962.

  • Artist Biography

    Diane Arbus

    American • 1923 - 1971

    Transgressing traditional boundaries, Diane Arbus is known for her highly desirable, groundbreaking portraiture taken primarily in the American Northeast during the late 1950s and 1960s. Famous for establishing strong personal relationships with her subjects, Arbus' evocative images capture them in varied levels of intimacy. Whether in their living rooms or on the street, their surreal beauty transcends the common distance found in documentary photography.

    Taken as a whole, Arbus' oeuvre presents the great diversity of American society — nudists, twins, babies, beauty queens and giants — while each distinct image brings the viewer into contact with an exceptional individual brought to light through Arbus' undeniable genius. 

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1

Diane Arbus

Seated female impersonator with arms crossed on her bare chest, N.Y.C.

1960
Gelatin silver print.
8 1/4 x 6 in. (21 x 15.2 cm)
Stamped 'A Diane Arbus Print', signed by Doon Arbus, Executor, in ink, and Estate copyright credit reproduction limitation stamps on the verso.

Estimate
$25,000 - 35,000 

Sold for $25,000

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Photographs Evening & Day

New York 5 & 6 October 2016