Retired man and his wife at home in a nudist camp one morning in N.J.
Artist/Culture
Diane Arbus
(American, 1923–1971)
Date1963
Mediumgelatin silver print on Agfa projection paper
Dimensionsimage: 36.4 × 37.3 cm (14 5/16 × 14 11/16 in.)
sheet: 50.4 × 40.5 cm (19 13/16 × 15 15/16 in.)
sheet: 50.4 × 40.5 cm (19 13/16 × 15 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Hall James Peterson, Clamber Hill, Petersham, Massachusetts
Terms
Object number1974.32
DescriptionOne of a box of ten photographs in an edition of 50, selected and designed by Diane Arbus in 1970, published subsequently by her daughter, Doon Arbus, with photographs printed by her former student, Neil Selkirk; (printed on Agfa projection paper)Label TextArbus’s Xmas tree and Retired man and his wife include a touchstone of the American domestic space—the television. Meant to signal the homeowner's prosperity, the parlor scene in Xmas tree shows a substantial TV set across from an oversized tree dripping in gaudy ornamentation and an abundance of presents. Arbus lampoons the ridiculous size of the tree, casting a critical eye at midcentury, middle-class American values. Arbus’s photographs complement the grouping of amateur photographs at right, which affirm the television’s place of prominence in the American home. Unique among her contemporaries, Arbus’s signature square-format photographs, captured using a two-and-one-quarter-inch Rolleiflex camera, echo the common square-format snapshots of the 1950s and ’60s.ProvenanceGift of Mr. and Mrs. James Hall Peterson, Clamber Hill, Petersham, MA
On View
Not on view
