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Diane ArbusAmerican Portraits

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Heide is delighted to host the National Gallery of Australia’s touring exhibition, Diane Arbus: American Portraits.

The photographs of Diane Arbus (1923–71) are among the most widely recognised in the history of photography. Her images stand as powerful allegories of post-war America, and once seen are rarely forgotten. Works such as Identical twins, Roselle, N.J., 1967 and Child with toy hand grenade, in Central Park, New York City have been described as two of ‘the most celebrated images in the history of the medium’. Featuring 35 of Arbus’s most iconic and confrontational images from 1961–71, this exhibition examines the last decade of Arbus’s life and the period in which her style is in full flight. Her work has polarised viewers who question whether she exploited or empowered her subjects, who were often drawn from society’s margins.

Arbus’s photographs will be exhibited alongside a selection of works by other leading American photographers.

When
21 March – 17 June 2018
Location
Heide Galleries
Curator/s
Anne O’Hehir (National Gallery of Australia)

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Installation view, Diane Arbus: American Portraits 2018, photograph: Christian Capurro

Listen back to Norbert Loeffler, Senior Lecturer in Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University, discussing photography, portraiture and the works of Diane Arbus. Recorded at Heide on 24 March 2018.

Selected Media

Intimate, dark and compelling: the photographs of Diane Arbus
Kerrie O’Brien, The Age, 14 March 2018

Diane Arbus American Portraits
Arts Review, 15 March 2018

Diane Arbus’s Iconic American Portraits
Elena Martinique, WideWalls, 30 March 2018

Diane Arbus’s Iconic American Portraits Come to Melbourne
Will Cox, Broadsheet Melbourne, 10 April 2018

American Portraits by Diane Arbus
Nadiah Abdulrahim, Art Gudie Australia, 11 April 2018

Diane Arbus: American Portraits at Heide Museum of Modern Art
Chelsea Hopper, MEMO Review, 2 June 2018

Diane Arbus: American Portraits is a National Gallery of Australia Exhibition.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.

Current Exhibitions
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