Diane Arbus: Konstellationen

Widely regarded as one of the most original and influential artists of the 20th century, Diane Arbus’ bold black-and-white photographs demolish aesthetic conventions and upend all certainties. With Diane Arbus: Konstellationen, Gropius Bau presents the most comprehensive exhibition of her work to date. Featuring 454 prints, many of them shown here for the first time, Konstellationen offers new perspectives on Arbus’ iconic images and the wide range of her portraiture.

Diane Arbus spent much of her career, which spanned from the late 1950s to 1971, photographing in New York City, which has created a diverse and compelling portrait of life in the postwar United States. Her subjects included couples, children, drag performers, nudists, New York City pedestrians, suburban families, circus performers, intellectuals such as Susan Sontag and celebrities including Mae West and James Brown. 

Presented as a labyrinthine “constellation” of photographs, the exhibition at Gropius Bau follows neither chronological nor thematic grouping. Instead, it invites visitors to wander freely among the images, discovering the resonances and relationships that emerge between them.