Cataclysm: The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited at David Zwirner

Installation view, Cataclysm: The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited, David Zwirner, Los Angeles, April 24–June 21, 2025, photo by Elon Schoenholz, Courtesy David Zwirner

PIPER OLIVAS May 8, 2025

David Zwirner and Fraenkel Gallery reunite—this time in Los Angeles, to restage a historic retrospective of work by Diane Arbus originally shown posthumously at the Museum of Modern Art in 1972, a year after her death. This exhibition, aptly titled Cataclysm, features all 113 photographs from that show—a selection that shattered the museum's attendance records.

The images—tender yet unsettling, once divided critics and audiences alike. Famously, Susan Sontag wrote that Arbus’s photographs "show people who are pathetic, pitiable, as well as repulsive, but it does not arouse any compassionate feelings." Her work polarized viewers: some interpreted her images as voyeuristic, while others felt radical empathy for the “otherness” often depicted in her work. Yet, regardless of outside perspective, Cataclysm reaffirms Arbus’s seismic impact on photography, elevating a medium often disregarded by institutions worldwide. Her portraits disrupted convention and forced viewers to confront those whom society overlooked.

Diane Arbus, Tattooed man at a carnival, MD. 1970 © The Estate of Diane Arbus

Remarkably, the prints—hung closely, as if in direct conversation with one another—appear as vivid and immediate as if they were printed yesterday. This is due in part to Arbus’s distinctive darkroom practice, where she produced her stylistically unique silver gelatin prints. Arbus occasionally worked alongside Neil Selkirk, a British photographer who assisted her with technical matters and took her course at Westbeth. Following Arbus's death, Selkirk became the sole person authorized to print from her negatives. Although the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired Arbus's archives in 2007, Selkirk remains actively involved with the estate, contributing to exhibitions, publications, and broader efforts concerning Arbus and her legacy.

Arbus tragically took her own life in 1971 at the age of 48. While alive, she gained modest recognition, though she was highly regarded by fellow artists, regardless of her lack of major commercial success. Jeffrey Fraenkel, who has worked with the Arbus estate since founding his gallery in 1979, recalled a time when Arbus struggled to sell her portfolio titled "A box of ten photographs." She sold only four sets of the portfolio during her lifetime: one to Bea Feitler— the former art director of Harper’s Bazaar, one to the iconic painter Jasper Johns, and two sets acquired by fellow photographer Richard Avedon.

Today, Arbus is revered as a pioneer who pierced through the surface to reveal unseen subjects. Though the photographs span the 1950s through the early 1970s, they feel anything but dated. They remain startlingly relevant: raw, strange, and profoundly human. Her subjects, often caught mid-gesture or in unusual positions, exude an offbeat magnetism that is difficult to turn away from. Arbus lifts the veil between herself, her camera, and her subject. You are conscious of all elements in her process. Arbus once said, “I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don’t like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself.”

Cataclysm: The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited is on view at David Zwirner in Los Angeles through June 21, 2025.