Photo by Stephen Frank. Diane Arbus during a class at the Rhode Island School of Design, 1970 © Stephen A. Frank
Fraenkel Gallery is collaborating with David Zwirner in the representation of the Estate of Diane Arbus. Fraenkel Gallery's long and close association with the Arbus Estate will reportedly continue unchanged, as it works together with David Zwirner on the presentation of Arbus's photographs at David Zwirner's New York, London and Hong Kong locations.
Inaugurating the collaboration will be the first complete presentation of Diane Arbus's Untitled series, 65 images made at residences for the developmentally disabled between 1969 and 1971, the last years of the artist's life. These late works are a radical departure from the bold, confrontational images upon which the photographer's formidable reputation largely stands. Though Arbus contemplated making a book on the subject, the majority of these images remained unknown until 1995, when Aperture published Diane Arbus: Untitled.
The forthcoming exhibition at David Zwirner will include several images that have never before been seen. It opens to the public on November 2, 2018, at 537 W. 20th St., New York, NY.
Jeffrey Fraenkel notes, "Though Arbus's career as a serious artist spanned only 15 years—1956 through 1971—we are still coming to terms with her achievement, significant aspects of which remain relatively little known. Our collaboration with David Zwirner and his exceptional team will help the work to be seen and better understood, especially in Europe and Asia, where there have been few or no gallery exhibitions."
David Zwirner adds, "I am honored to have been entrusted to help the Estate and Fraenkel Gallery with the extraordinary legacy of Diane Arbus, whose radical work remains as relevant today, as when her photographs were taken. The Estate and Fraenkel Gallery's handling of Arbus's work has been exemplary and we are thrilled to partner with them."
Together, in March 2019, the galleries will co-present Diane Arbus/Alice Neel at the ADAA Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory, New York. This presentation will explore links and resonances between the two artists, who were simultaneously creating some of their most consequential work not far from each other in New York in the 1960s.
Fraenkel Gallery, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary next September with a book and exhibition entitled, 'Long Story Short", began its association with the work of Diane Arbus in 1979, the year the gallery opened. Since then, Fraenkel has presented a dozen exhibitions addressing various aspects of the artist's achievement, including Diane Arbus: Christ in a Lobby and Other Unknown or Almost Known Works, selected by Robert Gober in 2010. In 2015 the gallery published Silent Dialogues: Diane Arbus & Howard Nemerov, by art historian Alexander Nemerov, exploring the complex web of influence between Arbus (the author's aunt, whom he never met) and her brother, the American Poet Laureate (the author's father).
Since opening its doors in 1993, David Zwirner has been home to innovative, singular, and pioneering exhibitions across a variety of media and genres. The gallery has helped foster the careers of some of the most influential artists working today, and has maintained long-term representation of a wide-ranging, international group of artists and estates. Based in New York with spaces in Chelsea and the Upper East Side, David Zwirner expanded to Europe in 2012 with a gallery in an 18th-century Georgian townhouse in London's Mayfair district, and opened its first gallery in Asia in January 2018 in Central Hong Kong.
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