PROPERTY FROM A SOUTHERN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Diane Arbus' Child with a toy hand grenade, Central Park, N.Y.C, 1962, is considered to be one of the most important and influential images in the history of 20th century art and post-modernist critical theory. A visual synonym for America in the pre-Vietnam era, the photograph captures the zeitgeist of a troubled nation in a time of significant cultural unrest. In October of 1964, a group of 6 prints by Arbus, including Child with a toy hand grenade, N.Y.C., were purchased by The Museum of Modern Art, New York - her first works to enter the museum's permanent collection. Neil Selkirk, the only person who has been subsequently authorized to print from a Diane Arbus negative after her death in 1971, made this print in either 1972 or 1973.
DIANE ARBUS (1923-1971)
Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C., 1962
Details
DIANE ARBUS (1923-1971)
Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C., 1962
gelatin silver print, printed later by Neil Selkirk
stamped 'A Diane Arbus photograph', signed, titled, dated by Doon Arbus, Administrator, in ink and Estate reproduction limitation stamp (on the verso)
14¾ x 14½in. (37.5 x 37cm.)
Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C., 1962
gelatin silver print, printed later by Neil Selkirk
stamped 'A Diane Arbus photograph', signed, titled, dated by Doon Arbus, Administrator, in ink and Estate reproduction limitation stamp (on the verso)
14¾ x 14½in. (37.5 x 37cm.)
Provenance
With Witkin Gallery, New York;
to the present owner, 1970s
to the present owner, 1970s
Literature
Diane Arbus, Aperture, 1972, n.p.; Diane Arbus Revelations, Random House, 2003, pp. 104-105 and contact sheet p. 164