Artist Profile: Diane Arbus, photographer

(click for larger image, or go to the Robert Klein Gallery)

I can't believe that money is any proper reward for art. Art seems to me something you do because it makes you feel good to do it; it excites you, or you learn something from it. - Diane Arbus, photographer

Some believe the photographs of the mentally retarded are invasive and that Arbus callously exploits them. Her motives for producing the work clearly relate to her absorption in the dialectic between artist and subject, and by implication, audience and subject. Arbus might very well have been exploitative. Her motives probably had to do with self-discovery and self-therapy. Her concerns are obviously spiritual and certainly not financial. However, the relationship between the artist and money is very much a subtext in Arbus' life and work. Many of her subjects were not in the mainstream of the capitalist social culture. And, of course, outside of the mainstream is where we increasingly find our most interesting artists working. In an interview with Studs Terkel for his book Hard Times, Arbus, identified as "Daisy Singer" has this to say about art and money: (link for full site)

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Haunting and creepy photos, the artist killed herself in 1971, I was about a year old at that time.
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