Diane Arbus's 1960s

“We may think we know everything about Diane Arbus just from looking at her photographs, but Frederick Gross has challenged the usual easy readings of Arbus as a gimlet eyed ironist by exploring the artist’s philosophical, journalistic and political contexts in depth, and offering many surprising insights into her multifaceted motives and carefully arrived at methods. One comes away with a much enhanced appreciation of the complexity of Arbus’s vision and the heroic dimensions of her empathetic activism. Such a study is especially important now because the artist’s enormous cultural influence tends to obscure accurate hindsight into her development and process.” -Glenn O’Brien

“Gross skillfully discusses a range of subjects (e.g., documentary photography, portraiture, the body, the social climate) and how they relate to Arbus and her work. Highly recommended for all photography and art collections as well as for photography enthusiasts.” -Library Journal

Frederick Gross is professor of art history at the Savannah College of Art and Design. His writing has been published in periodicals such as Cabinet and Afterimage and in the volume Global and Local Art Histories.

Looking past the myth of Diane Arbus to the depth of her achievement within the artistic, intellectual, and social currents of the 1960s