26th June – 17th August 2012
“…
Every difference is a Likeness too. There are associations, groups, clubs, alliances, milieus for every one of them. And each milieu is a small world, a subculture with a slightly other set of rules for the game. Not to ignore them, not to lump them all together, but to watch them, to take notice, to pay attention
…”
— D. A.
To coincide with a major Diane Arbus exhibition at the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin this summer, Timothy Taylor Gallery is proud to announce Diane Arbus: Affinities, an exhibition of thirty-two photographs made over the course of the artist?s career. Several of the photographs have never been exhibited before in the UK.
Arbus explored the notion of affinities – the elements that humans share, as well as those they don?t – throughout much of her mature work (1956-71). A deep interest in likenesses, disguises, in bonds, alliances and allegiances is a recurring theme. Arbus?s carefully considered titles – all for works to be included in the present exhibition – eloquently convey the depth and variety of her interests:
A naked man being a woman, N.Y.C. 1968
A blind couple in their bedroom, Queens, N.Y. 1971
Russian midget friends in a living room on 100th Street, N.Y.C. 1963 Four English children, Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962
Triplets in their bedroom, N.J. 1963
Two girls in matching bathing suits, Coney Island, N.Y.C. 1967 Winston Churchill look-alike, London, England 1969
Elizabeth Taylor look-alike reclining on a bed, London, England 1969 Wax Museum: Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret, London 1969
As the last titles indicate, Arbus came to London in 1969 and began work on a magazine story she had proposed to Nova: “People Who Think They Look Like Other People.” The magazine placed the following ad in The Times and The Evening Standard, generating a tremendous response from prospective candidates:
“Have you ever been told you look the double of someone famous? Like Elizabeth Taylor … Twiggy, The Queen, Mick Jagger, Sir Winston Churchill? If you think you are the double of someone famous you could be famous too.”
In connection with what might be considered a related theme—people or things that appear to be what they are not—Arbus gained access to Madame Tussaud?s Wax Museum on behalf of the magazine. “I got permission to go there at night when it was empty. I touched some of them,” she wrote in a letter to her daughter, Amy.
