Diane Arbus 1923-1971

The photographer to Ann Ray Martin, 1967

Sotheby's New York, 5 October 1994, Sale 6599, Lot 60

Acquired by the present owner from the above

Other prints of this image:

Diane Arbus (New York: The Museum of Modern Art and Aperture, 1972, in conjunction with the exhibition originating at The Museum of Modern Art, New York), unpaginated

Diane Arbus: Revelations, (New York, 2003, in conjunction with the exhibition originating at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), p. 85

The photograph offered here comes originally from the collection of Ann Ray Martin, who was the art reporter for Newsweek when she first interviewed Diane Arbus in 1967 during the 'New Documents' exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art.  In her article, published in the magazine on 20 March 1967, Martin wrote, 'Diane Arbus commands a particular attention. . .With the sharp, crystal-clear, generous vision of a poet, Mrs. Arbus turns her lens on the margins of society.  She can capture the peacock pathos of a transvestite, the hygienic serenity of a nudist.  She can evoke the scary sweetness of being a twin (or a triplet), the spotless sterility of a middle-class living room, the jaded grotesqueness of a burlesque queen, or the togetherness of a trio of midgets.'

During their conversations, Arbus herself said of the triplets, '. . .These triplets?  They remind me of myself, my own adolescent self--lined up in three images, each with tiny differences.'  The 'Triplets' image was the only photograph reproduced on the cover of the brochure that accompanied the circulating exhibition of the 'New Documents' show.

Martin and Arbus met a few times during 1967, and it was during one of those occasions that Arbus gave her this photograph.  When The Museum of Modern Art honored Arbus with a posthumous retrospective in 1972, portions of Martin's interview notes were chosen by curator John Szarkowski for inclusion in the text of the accompanying monograph.