Lot 58
58
DIANE ARBUS (1923-1971)
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 1… Read more For me the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture. And more complicated. I really think what it is, is what it's about. I mean it has to be of something. And what it's of is always more remarkable than what it is. DIANE ARBUS, 1971
DIANE ARBUS (1923-1971)

Xmas tree in a living room, Levittown, L.I., 1963

Details
DIANE ARBUS (1923-1971)
Xmas tree in a living room, Levittown, L.I., 1963
gelatin silver print
annotated 'The opinion of The Estate of Diane Arbus regarding this Diane Arbus print is contained in a letter from the Estate dated April 26, 2006' by Doon Arbus, Executor, in ink on verso
14½ x 14½in. (36.8 x 36.8cm.)
Provenance
Gift of the artist to Andrew Sarchiapone, composer and friend, 1970;
acquired by present owner, 2001.

Sarchiapone was a close friend and neighbour of Diane Arbus at Westbeth in New York City, an artistic community in a converted telephone company building which provided affordable living and working spaces for visual, performing and literary artists.
Literature
Diane Arbus, Aperture, 1972, n.p.; Documentary Photography, Time-Life Books, 1972, p.203; Diane Arbus Revelations, Random House, 2003, pp.92-93.
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium
Sale room notice
WITHDRAWN

Lot Essay

'An immobile image of the lifeless quality of mechanically celebrated holidays, this acid photograph was taken at a suburban housing development on Long Island. The expensive furnishings and the plentiful presents indicate the prosperity of the inhabitants, but the antiseptic arrangement suggests a spiritual coldness at odds with the open-hearted love and honor Christmas gifts should represent. For all the neatness of the room, the clocks do not agree.' (Documentary Photography, p.203)

This work is accompanied by a letter of authentication, dated 26 April 2006, from The Estate of Diane Arbus confirming this print was made by Arbus (illus).

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