Arthur Lubow’s new biography attempts to unravel the enigma of a photographer who specialized in human mystery. Review by Michelle Dean.
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Overview
Diane Arbus brings to life the full story of one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century, a visionary who revolutionized photography and altered the course of contemporary art with her striking, now iconic images. Arbus comes startlingly to life on these pages, a strong-minded child of unnerving originality who grew into a formidable artist and forged an intimacy with her subjects that has inspired generations of artists. Arresting, unsettling, and poignant, her photographs stick in our minds. Why did these people fascinate her? And what was it about her that captivated them?
It is impossible to understand the transfixing power of Arbus’s photographs without understanding her life story. Arthur Lubow draws on exclusive interviews with Arbus’s friends, lovers, and colleagues, on previously unknown letters, and on his own profound critical understanding of photography, to explore Arbus’s unique perspective. He deftly traces Arbus’s development from a wealthy, sexually precocious free spirit into first a successful New York fashion photographer, and then a singular artist who coaxed hidden truths from her subjects. Lubow reveals that Arbus’s profound need not only to see her subjects but to be seen by them drove her to forge unusually close bonds with these people, helping her discover the fantasies, pain, and heroism within each of them.
Diane Arbus is the definitive biography of this unique, hugely influential artist. This magnificently absorbing, sensitive treatment of a singular personality brushes aside the clichés that have long surrounded Arbus and her work to capture a brilliant portrait of this seminal artist whose work has immeasurably shaped art and modern culture.
Lubow’s Diane Arbus finally does justice to Arbus, and brings to life the story and art of one of the greatest American artists in history.
Diane Arbus includes a 16-page black-and-white photo insert.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780062234339 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins |
Publication date: | 03/14/2017 |
Pages: | 752 |
Sales rank: | 1,114,528 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Photographs Discussed in the Text xiii
Part 1 A Daughter, a Wife, and a Mother
1 The Decisive Moment 3
2 Stage-Set French 7
3 Them Against the World 15
4 Mysterious, but Not Blurry 21
5 Enter Allan 29
6 A Friendly-Looking Beard 33
7 Weddings 39
8 Living, Breathing Photography 45
9 Floating Weightless and Brilliant 51
10 Doon Is Born 57
11 Mr. and Mrs. Inc. 63
12 A Mystical Friendship 71
13 A Long-Awaited Consummation 77
14 Central Park Prophecy 85
Part 2 Breaking Away
15 Out the Prison Door 93
16 Hermitage Seductions 99
17 A Spanish Impasse 107
18 Italian Street Photographer 115
19 Modish and Empty 123
20 Circus 131
21 Out of Fashion 137
22 Finding Her Spot 145
23 Raincoat in Central Park 151
24 A Tiny Woman with a Grand Manner 157
25 What She Learned 167
26 Notes of Unhappiness 173
27 Losing Herself 181
Part 3 Becoming a Photographer
28 The Ground Was Shifting 189
29 Buy Amy's Present, Go to the Morgue 197
30 A Mephistopheles, a Svengali, a Rasputin 207
31 A Manual of Facial Types 215
32 The Weeping Clown and Fearless Tightrope Walker 221
33 The Bizarre and the Chic at Bazaar 231
34 Freak Show 241
35 Punchy New Journalism 249
36 Silver Spoon 259
37 Forlorn and Angry Children 265
38 Self-Created Women 271
39 Tinseltown 279
Part 2 Knowing People in an Almost Biblical Sense
40 A Fantastically Honest Photographer 289
41 Is the Jewish Couple Happy? 297
42 And Then You're a Nudist 303
43 It's Not Like You're Acting 309
44 To Know People, Almost in a Biblical Sense 317
45 An Element of Torture 325
46 People on Plinths 333
47 Teaching Younger People 339
48 This Is the Whole Secret 345
49 Mysteries of Sex 351
50 I Think We Should Tell You, We're Men 357
51 Nancy and Pati in Middle Age 365
52 Each with a Tiny Difference 373
Part 5 The Crystal-Clear Vision of a Poet
53 Desperate to Be Famous 381
54 Peace and Love 393
55 An English Connection 401
56 The Heart of the Maelstrom 407
57 Fantasy Made Actual 417
58 A Family on Their Lawn in Westchester 421
59 A Frightful Zombie 429
60 An Ideal Woman 435
61 A Political Year 441
62 Flatland 447
63 Swinging London 453
Part 6 Happy Even Though they Don't Have Anything
64 Asylum 465
65 Art and Money 473
66 Fantastic and Real 481
67 A Dowsing Rod for Anguish 489
68 Wild Dynamics 497
69 An Urban Palace 505
70 A Modern-Day Ingres 511
71 The Mexican Dwarf and the Jewish Giant 517
Part 7 Heartbreaking and Dizzying
72 Almost Like Ice 527
73 Storms 535
74 It's All Chemical 541
75 Old Photographs, New Camera 545
76 Blood 551
77 Aging 557
78 Song and Dance 561
79 "Love" 567
80 A Woman Passing 573
81 You Can't Come In 581
82 Loose Ends 585
83 Like Hamlet and Medea 589
84 Runes 595
85 Things That Nobody Would See 603
Sources and Acknowledgments 613
Notes 619
Index 717