Exhibition dates: 27th March – 1st August 2010
Many thankx to the Modern Museum for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
Picture Magazine #16
Diane Arbus: A Monograph of Seventeen Photographs
1964
Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)
Magazine spread featuring Xmas tree in a living room in Levittown, L.I., 1963 and A Young Brooklyn Family Going for a Sunday Outing, N.Y.C. 1966 (see either installation photograph below and enlarge to see pairing on the back wall!)
Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)
Magazine spread featuring Mexican Dwarf in his hotel room, N.Y.C., 1970 and Identical twins, Roselle, N.J.,
1967 (see either installation photograph below and enlarge to see pairing on the back wall!)
Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)
The New Life
Harper’s Bazaar (February, 1968)
Copyright © 1968 The Estate of Diane Arbus, LLC
Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)
Anderson Hays Cooper, NYC
1968
Gelatin silver photograph
The exhibition “Pierre Leguillon features Diane Arbus: a printed retrospective, 1960-1971” presents approximately one hundred Diane Arbus photographs for magazines. According to its author, Pierre Leguillon, the aim of the small book that accompanies the exhibition is not to interpret the images or items on display but “simply to replace the photographs in the context of their initial appearance.” The aim of this conversation is in turn to replace this project in the context of Leguillon’s artistic practice.
About the title, Leguillon explains “it is analogous to the term one would use for an exhibition featuring all of Goya’s printwork. Showing everything that appeared in magazines during Diane Arbus’s lifetime participates in the same gesture. It’s also a matter of exposing the working process that shapes the exhibition. The poster created by Philippe Millot from one of my photos plays an important role in this. What we see is the pile of collected magazines that makes up the retrospective, with its somewhat vain and fanciful side, but we also see a sculpture or a monument. […] I wanted to show the pictures that were actually published that differ from some exhibition prints and also to show how they were published. It started from the observation that these photos were printed well in perfect layouts in sixties magazines. So I’m using the page layout as a ‘prefabricated’ exhibition structure: the mats are already there, along with picture titles and artist signature. So I don’t have to add descriptive labels.” (Interview / Pierre Leguillon – “not to be missed”: Diane Arbus, in: Particules no 22 – December 2008 / January 2009) …
The French artist Pierre Leguillon has compiled a unique retrospective on the large body of work produced by Diane Arbus for the Anglo-American press in the 1960s. This spring and summer, the exhibition is being shown at Moderna Museet Malmö, featuring some 100 photos in their original context – on the pages of magazines.
In the 1960s, Diane Arbus (1923-1971) was used widely by publications such as Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Nova and The Sunday Times Magazine. Her extensive work for the Anglo-American press is relatively unknown, however, and Pierre Leguillon’s presentation is the first time it has been shown in this way: a printed retrospective in the form of some one hundred original magazine spreads.
The exhibition presents a broad material comprising hundreds of photos that demonstrate her wide variety of subjects and genres: photo journalism, celebrity shots, kids’ fashion and several photo essays. All Arbus’ photos are shown in their original social and political context, in the pages of original magazines. The images are shown as they were intended to be seen, in their intended format and setting and in relation to a text. Interspersed in this rich array of Arbus’ photographic output are various texts and images by other photographers (Walker Evans, Annie Leibovitz, Victor Burgin, Wolfgang Tillmans, Matthieu Laurette, Bill Owens) directly or indirectly referring to a specific part of Arbus’ oeuvre and thus emphasising its strong impact on her contemporary times and the present day.
The retrospective, which was put together by the French artist Pierre Leguillon and is presented as a work of art / exhibition / collection, also encourages us to reflect on these aspects and on the relationship between the original and the copy.
Press release from the Moderna Museet Malmö website [Online] Cited 25/07/2010 no longer available online
Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)
Make War Not Love!
Sunday Times Magazine (London) (September 14, 1969)
Copyright © 1969 The Estate of Diane Arbus, LLC
Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)
The Vertical Journey: Six Movements of a Moment within the Heart of the City
Esquire (July, 1960)
Copyright © 1968 The Estate of Diane Arbus, LLC
Installation view: Pierre Leguillon features Diane Arbus: A Printed Retrospective, 1960-1971, Moderna Museet Malmö, 27 March-1 August 2010. Collection Kadist Art Foundation
Photo: Prallan Allsten
© Moderna Museet
Installation view: Pierre Leguillon features Diane Arbus: A Printed Retrospective, 1960-1971, Moderna Museet Malmö, 27 March-1 August 2010. Collection Kadist Art Foundation
Photo: Prallan Allsten
© Moderna Museet
Moderna Museet Malmö
Gasverksgatan 22 in Malmö
Moderna Museet Malmö is located in the city centre of Malmö. Ten minutes walk from the Central station, five minutes walk from Gustav Adolfs torg and Stortorget.
Opening hours:
Tuesday 10-20
Wednesday 10-18
Thursday 10-18
Friday 10-20
Saturday 10-18
Sunday 10-18
Mondays closed
Art Blart 
Some very interesting photographs